


Chronicles of the Shield: Operation Origins

by CrisisExceed



Series: Chronicles of the Shield [1]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Developing Friendships, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Original Character(s), Origin Story, Other, POV First Person, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-10 03:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10428540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrisisExceed/pseuds/CrisisExceed
Summary: Project: Taladen is an experimental process which attempts to genetically modify the human body with supernatural abilities. Under this disturbing process an assassin, a street punk, and a war hero are bought together from three completely different backgrounds to form an unexpected bond of blossoming friendships and taking the first baby steps to becoming a team.The first in an episodic series





	1. The Assassin

**Author's Note:**

> This is a series I have posted on fanfiction, thought I'd post it here as well. This is a fic takes place in a world from a novel I wrote back in high school, and thought I'd try my hand by combining it with my endless love for The Shield. Apologies in advanced if things don't make sense they will either eventually be explained, also I'm usually more than happy to answer any questions as well. Don't be afraid to drop be a review on ways I can improve somethings as well, I'm always open to suggestions to better my stories. 
> 
> I'm also pretty new to posting things on this site so, there might be tags added later, just kinda dipping my toes in the water with it. I'm also pretty open to suggestions with these
> 
> Anyway enough of my ranting...
> 
> Enjoy! :D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wyndmere, a small country to the north refuses to let go of old traditions and has even refused the aid of the continent's super power. For things to change something's got to give...
> 
> That's where Tyler Black comes in.

Being locked inside a jail cell huddled in a corner by myself in a fetal like position wasn’t a good look for me. How did I manage to find myself in this situation? To suddenly become a lab rat for the Alliance’s military. I was supposed to be the best, the best of my people...to show that my people we weren’t about to bow down because the Alliance were so gracious to lend a hand to my people. Before my thoughts could continue the opening of the cell caught my attention. The only thing I could make out through blurred vision were two burly guards in full desert camouflage tactical gear. I could hear them stifle a laugh at my dismay. Seeing me looking like a defeated dog especially after the crimes I committed should have been a glorious sight to them.

Seeing them, just laughing at me caused my blood to boil, it sent every vindictive thought straight to my head. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I’d choose to batter these two senseless til they were begging for their lives. I chose to ignore the burning sensation that was shooting through my forearms. I could only glare as I was too weak to even try anything else let alone walking. For the last few hours walking had been hard, my knees were weak. I felt a hand grab my wrist which instantly shot a fierce wave of pain though my body. I winced and made probably the most pathetic squealing noise a man could make, which only made the two guard laugh even harder. 

The one that had grabbed me gripped my wrist and forced me to my feet, despite that my knees were already starting to give way he didn’t care, he had a job to do. He looked down at my arm and smiled at the same time looking utterly disgusted. His other arm had shot out to grab my other wrist despite my reactions that he was putting me through great pain he inspected my forearms. He looked back at the other guard that had come in, giving him an order about grabbing the lead scientist’s attention. I could barely make out the words as I was overcome with exhaustion from the sheer screaming I had done only hours ago, I had not even the strength to tell him that he was doing me a great disservice by making me stand and holding me up the way I was.

He turned his attention back to my forearms. Still holding me by my wrists he wrenched my arms around getting a good look at them from every angle. He looked utterly bewildered as his blonde brows furrowed in both bewilderment and utter excitement. He was able to see completely through my arms. I hadn’t seen things the same way. I was fatigued, I was in agony, I was wanted the dumb oaf to let me go so I can get to sleep. It was discomforting as he stood here jerking me around like I was a doll. 

He finally released me and shoved me back, my back hitting against the cold cell wall. Slowly my back just slid against the wall blurring my vision of the cell door. I noticed that the other guard had come back looking both out of breath and in panic. I could barely make out what it was saying it sounded like he needed help holding down one of the test subjects. The one looked back at me with a malicious grin before turning and leaving the cell locking the door behind him. I didn’t care, I just wanted him to leave so I could get some sort of resemblance of sleep. 

The smells of the facility they were holding us in, reeked of iodine and blood, but we were told that that was to be typical for these kinds of research facilities. Stone walls around every corner and as far as I could see only jail cells similar to mine as far as I could see. 

I was too weak to stand at this point, with only my burning arms to carry me across the hard stone floor, I was able to crawl slowly to my cot. Lifting myself despite the screaming agony of my arms, I eventually was able to crawl into the cot and lay my head down on the pillow. Even though this place had nothing but unjust torment written on it, they were at least nice enough to give us a comforting place to sleep on. My head began to pound as I laid down, one of my hands reaching up and pulling out a few loose golden strands. I inspected them, I could see the other ends that were rested behind my fingers so clearly. From my fingertips to my elbows were completely invisible. 

What did they do to me? What was this hell they were forcing me to endure?

Sighing I replayed the events in my head, over and over, but the only thing I can remember is the burning agony. I closed my eyes slowly hoping that sleep could just take me. I guess I should introduce myself...My name is Tyler Black, or at least that’s what my masters taught me to have you believe. The grogginess began to overpower me, I just hoped I could fall asleep even for just a little it could clear my head some in time for the next set of tests and experiments they had for me.

****

~~~***~~~

_Ever since I could remember, roughly around the age of ten my destiny was decided for me. My family trained some of the greatest assassins the world over. When I asked my father about he used to always tell me that the world needed people like us, or the world would fall to corruption. My father would tell me stories about the corrupt politicians, and how the damage caused by them was kept to a minimum thanks to his efforts. I knew what he had meant too, he didn't spare the details of the blood he's spilled over the years._

_He started me off small, teaching me basic hand to hand combat, and soon at the age of eleven I was learning to use knives and small blades. My father called me a natural, quickly picking up on his combat prowess. The better I got the bigger smile on his face, I didn’t understand it at first why he was so happy. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was happy to see me progress or if it was because he has something else in mind. As time went on, I found myself growing accustomed to all sorts of different weapons. My father wanted me to be versatile, and gave me the ability to adapt to any situation if need be. He would smile, but the look in his eyes always said something different. He had big plans for me, I could tell. Maybe even bigger than I could imagine. At the time I tried to pay it no mind as I could only continue my training. I wasn’t about to let my family down._

_If I recall I had to be about fifteen years old, when my father called me into his library. Bookcases stacked high almost to the ceiling, in the corner a cozy fireplace with two reclining chairs sitting right in front of it and a small mahogany side table in between the two, with a white tea set decorated in blue carnations. My mother was always the one who knew how to pick out the finest of decorations, for any part of the mansion. I never questioned the luxurious life we lived in, although throughout my life my father had reassured me that our life, our wealth was only a ruse to keep those who were nosy out. They had the power to pay off anyone who were suspicious of them. But I was sure my father didn’t call me in there to talk about the riches we had. The library was where he went to think, where he held his business meetings. To call me here had to mean he wanted to have a serious talk. I swallowed the lump in my throat._

_I took a deep breath and stepped inside the large room. It astonished me how many books actually were in existence. I looked around the chamber to see that my father had been sitting on one of the recliners. White gloves held open a red leather bound book, I squinted my eyes to try and catch what it was he was reading, but I couldn’t catch the glimpse before he gently shut it closed. He placed a hand on the other reclining chair patting it gently._

_“Sit, son.” he said with his endearing but very firm voice. Slowly I approached the recliner keeping a steady eye on the chair he was sitting in before coming around and just as slowly seating myself. When ever looking at him it was almost like I was looking in a mirror. He had clean cut short black hair with brown eyes, his beard neatly trimmed, and he always had the good taste for fashion. The white dress shirt he wore looked cleanly pressed, with a black vest and gold trimmings, black slacks and brown leather dress shoes polished to perfection._

_I watched him carefully place the leather bound book on the small table between the two of us, a gloved hand tapping on it. I eyed the book wondering if it had any significance to why he called me here. There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two of us as I waited for him to speak. I never really spoke to my father unless spoken to so I patiently waited, it wasn’t often that my father had spoken to me._

_“Your training progresses well.” he said finally breaking the elongated silence. “I don’t need to go into detail on why we do what we do, with that said I’m going to give you your next step in your training.” I watched him carefully pick up the leather bound book once more, and hand it out to me. “Study this book, learn its secrets. When you finally understand it, you’ll soon realize everything rests with you. You are our people’s salvation.”_

_I reached out and took the book. I didn’t understand what my father had meant but all the secrets must be in the book. For the next two years I spent learning the secrets of Tyler Black. He was the best of the best of assassins, and the hope of the people of his time. He killed generals and kings before disappearing never to be seen again. By the time I was seventeen, I understood what it was I had to do. My father didn’t just want me to learn his secrets, he needed me to become Tyler Black. His style, his technique, they were all in the book, it even had secrets that went straight down to poisons that didn’t even seem possible._

_Our people hated our king, he was driving us into oblivion by refusing the hand of the Alliance._

****

~~~***~~~

The sounds of footsteps caught my ears as my eyes snapped back open from my slumber. I was still pretty groggy from the lack of sleep, but at least the short nap let my head clear out some. The dull pain and throbbing had stopped for the time being. I sat up from my cot looking out my cell door. Two guards, thankfully not the same two from before were holding up an unconscious man down the hall his feet being dragged along the floor. I inspected the man, my eyes widened in horror seeing the state he was in. Was this the subject that needed to be held down? My stomach turned and twisted as I saw the trail of dried blood that was coming out from his ears. Short auburn colored hair, and blue eyes completely glazed over, it was a horrendous sight to look at. I felt like I wanted to vomit just seeing it. Filled with horror I felt the need to to reach up and feel my own ears, thankfully they were fine. Had that man gone through a different test than I? I suddenly looked down at my own hands remembering that I had gone to sleep still being able to see right through them, for now they were fine.

I tried to think back to before my short nap when my arms had turned invisible. I was pretty sure my arms were fine before the guards walked in. The more I looked back on it, I think I began to understand what happened. I was scared, nauseous, and I was down right exhausted. Had the experiment reacted to my emotions. At that point I felt like I wanted to disappear. I got up and approached the cell wall to see if I could still see the two guards and that test subject in sight, but they were gone. They must have put the subject back in his cell. I can’t get over the sight of those glazed eyes out of my mind. He had to be as terrified as myself. With weak legs I carried myself back onto my bed, the only means of comfort I had in this god-forsaken facility. I leaned back against the wall and curled my legs into my chest resting my chin on my knees. I gave a deep sigh, just wondering how many people were in this facility, and how many of them were absolutely terrified.

****

~~~***~~~

_My black cloak was the only veil in this night that I had. The clouds blocking out the moonlight, as if it was trying to assist me on the mission I had been dead set to do. I had spent two years studying the journal of Tyler Black, and one the realization had hit me...I knew the task my father had laid before me. Tyler Black had killed his king...and now I was to kill mine._

_I was like a black cat in the dead of this night. Unseen, yet completely aware of my surroundings. It was all set up, everything was perfect for the night of my first kill. The day I thought I had pulled Wyndmere to salvation. As I made my way through the streets it’s hard cobblestone streets and the old and rickety wood buildings, I had wondered to myself: if the rest of the world was starting to teeter technological breakthroughs why hadn’t we? We were still stuck on these old traditions, and any means of real technology in our country had to be at least ninety to one-hundred years old compared to the rest of the world, maybe even older. As far as I knew we were mostly alienated from the rest of Paragon, not wanting to dabble in their problems as we were dealing with our own. But with each passing year, the world was getting bigger and bigger and I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be long until we were consumed anyway. I remember looking up at a cloudy sky, I wanted no part in that._

_My destination was in clear view now. A gorgeous four story mansion that looked as if it was built out of the finest redwood known to man. I can’t remember how many windows I saw on the front of that mansion, there were that many but only a few of them dimly lit up. But that was about the extent of our technological research, we had the capabilities to wire our houses up to illuminate our buildings. I took a deep breath running a hand over my long dark hair that I tied so neatly into a bun. Pulling the hood up over my head I made my way towards the mansion avoiding any sight of guards I could. I came closer to my destination and gave an exasperated sigh. Leave it to the rich king to surround himself in a wall with a guard posted at every corner._

_My body shook in both anticipation and in excitement. I had no assassination experience and all the consequences began to weigh heavy in my mind. If I was caught I was dead, no matter what. This was trespassing on the king’s property which was a risk of it’s own, but the reward was worth the risk. With only my cloak to give me my cover, I managed to sneak my way up against the wall. Looking both left and right, I could see two of the guards coming closer. Each had a flashlight in hand and short ranged rifles on their back equipped with bayonets. In this moment time seemed to move slower, my nerves creeping up on me, slowly I removed the knife strapped to my thigh. If I failed here I was a dead man._

_I made the jump for the guard on my left. I covered his mouth to prevent him from making a noise as the other charged me I lept up to kick him in the nose to keep him from also making a sound, knocking the red beret off his head. While he nursed his now broken nose I reached up stabbing my knife into the jugular of the first one I charged. I grabbed him by the leather jacket he had on and whipped the lifeless corpse into the stunned one knocking his head into the wall. I heard the grunting noise he made which no doubt would attract more guards, which was already one mistake that had to sit in the back of my head. I saw the blood the pouring out of his head, he was gonna be dead within minutes._

_I reached up to climb the stone wall. Finding my footing I lept over the wall, spotting a nearby balcony. From the wall I lept up to the balcony on second story of the mansion, and climbed into the mansion through an open window. I found it a little too convenient that there would be an open window to a dark hallway but I’d take advantage of the blessings I’ve been given. I swiftly and quietly made my way up to the top of the stairs treading through the hard wood floor. Entire hallway floors had beautiful red and gold rugs that matched the red painted walls decorated with gold leaves. It astonished me how such a crooked man lived in such a lovely home._

_Finally I had made it to the top. The top floor was one entire bedroom with a short hallway leading up to it. There was no doubt that it was the king's bedroom and the place would be locked tight. I’d have to find another way inside. Suddenly another blessing made it’s way to my feet. A key that looked like it’d be a perfect fit for the room. I looked behind me making sure to keep my face hidden. I was surprised to see one of maids had been there. Had she been watching me? Did she warn the guards? No, she couldn’t have...because she just tossed me the key to the king’s bedroom._

_She looked to be no older than myself, her golden blonde hair wrapped neatly into a bun, and brown eyes that looked terrified. “Why?” I asked her._

_“The king must disappear.” she explained to me in a shaky voice. “With him in power we will never find our footing in this vastly growing world.” Was this what my father wanted? Was becoming a legend really what was gonna be the difference between life and death for my people? I reached down and picked up the key from the floor. I looked back at the scared girl, and she nodded. She placed a finger over her lips. I knew what she was trying to tell me. She wasn’t going to tell a soul what happened here. “Don’t worry,” she started. “If my sacrifice has to be the one that frees us then so be it. You have to live because..." I noticed the pause in her voice. She was serious about all of this. " **You are Tyler Black.** ” I sucked in a deep breath, and thought about her words. She truly did believe that I was our salvation. _

__

__

_How’d she get this key? There were more questions than answers. I could hear a commotion coming from below us, that meant only one thing. There was no time left._

_Using the key I hastily opened the door to the bedroom. It dark, the perfect spot, he was fast asleep. All I needed was one quick stab and it’d all be over. I pulled the knife off my leg again. It utterly disgusted me that someone so twisted could sleep so comfortably. Here was just an older man snoozing away while his people suffered in the midst of confusion. Staring at him made me sick, his lengthy gray beard the white covers on his bed. The sight of it...made me cringe in anger. I didn’t hesitate, I was quick._

_I stabbed the knife into his throat._

****

~~~***~~~

As much as I could relive the memory of me killing my king, I can’t say it’s one of my fondest moments. My first kill it plunged my people into more chaos. Without thinking, I killed our king and now our people were without a leader. I saw the signs, people rioting in the streets, people scared thinking their death was next. I couldn’t stand the sight. It had only been a month after the assassination and now everything was falling apart. It was a depressing sight to see. I let that guilt sink in, and I’ve carried that guilt for years. I caused my country to fall apart.

I pulled my legs closer to my body just thinking about what could have happened to my family. My beautiful mother, my charismatic father, back then I didn't even think about what was going to happen to them. I left without saying good bye, I roamed from place to place for two years before landing myself in Astros, the central capital of the Falishian Alliance. I was mystified that so many provinces in our land mass could come together to form an alliance under one pact. It was similar to the Radiance Providence. However Astros was so different from Wyndmere, it’s technological advancements were far beyond that of my people. I honestly, settled in quickly. With all the new surroundings, the atmosphere of it all..I was able to further my technique. I, would become better than Tyler Black. 

Sitting alone with only my thoughts, I didn’t notice right away that my cell door had been opened. I had hoped it wasn’t one of the guards. When I lifted my head from my knees, with blurred vision and baggy eyes it was finally nice to see a new sight. A beautiful brunette nurse dressed in all white, and a warm smile on her face. “Good news, Mr. Black. We’re transferring you out of this ward. Since your testing was a success there’s no reason to keep you in maximum security.” I watched her pull the clipboard from under her left arm and planted a pair of reading glasses from the top of her head. “You don’t show any of the negative signs, and you’re now being recommended for rest and relaxation. The film we implanted should slowly take over the rest of your body, integrating itself with the rest of your skin.” she looked at me smiling placing the reading glasses back on top of her head. How could she be smiling while sitting in a place like this? It was all too confusing. “Congratulations, Tyler...you’re the first successful subject.”

As good news as that was...why didn’t it feel good? And the first _successful test?_ What did that even mean? There probably had to be hundreds of volunteers here. How many were still there still left to experiment on? How many different experiments were they still conducting here? This was so frustrating! I hated when I ended up with more questions than answers. Sighing, I realized I wasn’t going to get the answers here. I needed to rest, and they were offering it to me. How could I not accept leaving this eye sore for a place? 

Slowly I crawled off the bed. Making sure I had both feet planted firmly on the floor, I began to slowly walk towards her. My legs were still a bit weak but she had no issues lending me a hand to help me stand. We walked down the stone halls where we passed many cells but one in particular caught my sight. A larger dark skinned man, looking rather defeated. I couldn’t get a good look at his face with his back to us and his forehead against the wall. All down his arm was a tribal tattoo and lengthy black hair to match. This one looked different than the other subjects we passed by. He was well built, and although he looked like an emotional mess. His stance, the way he stood...there was just something about him that said he might have been through worse, but I had a hard time thinking about what could possibly be worse than this place. 

The nurse saw the curiosity in my face and felt she had to speak up. “That’s the Lieutenant Colonel,” she explained. “He’s one of the overseers of this facility as well as a test subject.” She said, just loud enough for me to hear...but in hopes that he couldn’t hear it. I opened my mouth to ask a question when she quickly yanked me away leading me down the hall some more. “Don’t ask too many questions, Mr. Black.” she said taking me down to the second level where there were another set of hall ways with cells. 

After leading me down the halls we finally came to a set of thick set of double doors made of steel. I looked at the doors curiously, they were so simple for such a high tech facility. Didn’t look like they were meant for keeping things in or out. I sighed quietly to myself, things just weren’t adding up again.

She handed me a piece of paper with some information and what looked to be a room number. “Feel free to explore the facility. Just remember to try and stay out of the soldiers' way. Other than that the grounds are for you to use as you see fit, and remember to let us know if you think you might be feeling side effects to see one of us right away. We’ll be back to check on you soon.” She turned like she was about to head back before turning to me one last time. “Oh and in your dorm there’s a set of paperwork you need to fill. Each soldier of the Alliance is given another name be sure to think about the name you might be called for the rest of your life.” With that said she walked away leaving me to my thoughts, 

****

~~~***~~~

After exploring the grounds I retired to the dorm I was assigned. It was different from the experimentation facility. My dorm was compact and just big enough for one person. It consisted of a single bed complete with a side table and an alarm clock, a small closet sitting on the other side, and an oakwood desk on the wall in between. I was surprised to see all my personal belongings already transferred to the room. I didn’t have much on me save for a few sets of clothing, including work out clothes, a personalized tablet, and of course the journal of Tyler Black. I had spent a good solid hour filling out the paperwork signing where I needed to be, but the last question boggled me. I remember the nurse’s words clear in my head. I had to pick a name that I could get used to being called the rest of my life. They wanted me to become someone else, I was no longer allowed to be Tyler Black.

For hours I thought long about who I was gonna be. I paced around the room, lied on the soft bed, even thought about it in the small shower I was provided with...but then it hit me. I hastily grabbed the red leather bound journal off the side table next to the bed where I left it, and started quickly flipping through it's delicate pages. There was a name that constantly popped up in Tyler’s journal. They were a rival, and someone he spoke highly of. They were someone he respected but also someone he feared. Someone he thought might be the one who’d be the one to finally take his life after the countless he had taken. It was his apprentice, someone he taught his secrets to. Someone to carry on that legacy, sadly...the end of the journal never said what happened to him or his apprentice. Something told me he might have died shortly after. But the name kept running through my head again and again. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be Tyler Black...maybe I was meant to be his apprentice. I learned all his secrets from his journal. I understood now...I understood who I was truly meant to be.

I rushed back over the oak wood desk sitting back down staring down at the paperwork. Time seemed to be moving slower as I swallowed the lump in my throat. No matter what happened after this day, Tyler Black was dead. I picked up the pen taking a deep breath I signed the new name. 

_Seth Rollins_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you know the origins of Seth Rollins, the assassin from Wyndmere. I hope you liked it until next time!! :D


	2. The Street Punk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atlas, the City of Knowledge has a line that separates the rich and the poor, and very rarely can someone stand in between... 
> 
> Unless your name is Jon Moxley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is from Dean's PoV
> 
> Here we are with the second Origin story, warning there are some feels
> 
> Enjoy! :D

There was still a ringing in my ears, the experiments had begun to take their toll. I had to have been sitting here maybe two to three hours now since waking up, so who knows how long it's actually been since I passed out in the middle of the experiment. I felt something on the side of my head, I reached up to see what it was. Blood. Of course why would I think it's something else? It was dried and a little crusted, it made me sick. I slowly used my finger to trace the trail of blood up the side of my head. I could have sworn I froze in terror feeling where exactly the dried red liquid had come from.

I shivered from the absolute disgust that my stomach had twisted in realizing that this was just the result of the experiment. I began to wonder what kind of other methods of experimentation this facility was using, or if they even knew how much they were borderlining the inhumane side of human genetics. I'm starting to wonder if volunteering for this was even worth it. What if they succeeded? What would happen next? Oh, how the questions came to my head one by one, it was all starting to become too much for me. I could feel my heart beating rapidly, then again I think that was happening before I had passed out. Everything that happened before I passed out was still just one giant blur.

How did someone like me, a street punk make it to this place? This was a high-tech research facility owned by the Alliance, and operated by some of the top scientists. From first observations they were obviously working on some human genetics, stuff that wasn't too far beyond my knowledge. Although, that's probably what attracted my attention in the first place. I've studied and read numerous books about human biology, and perhaps it was curiosity that lead me to answer their calling in the first place. I was beginning to regret it just a little bit, considering the pounding pain that wracked my ears at the moment.

I laid back on my cot just staring at the ceiling of the cell, just waiting for something to happen...anything to happen. I lifted my head up when I heard some talking right next to my cell. I tried not to pay attention too hard to the conversation but in a place with this much chatter it's hard not to hear everything. I could only make out a few words, but it sounded like they were talking to someone important. Wasn't sure who though, I figured it's not my business. I figured I can wait this out until they realize their efforts are futile. I mean, through all the books I've read, there's not a single record on hand of a successful experiment on enhancing human genetics. My thoughts are everywhere at the moment, a part of it was thinking about the experiments and the other was thinking about home. A home I really don't miss.

I'm a rare commodity where I'm from. I come from what's known as "The City of Knowledge", a place that sounds nice but it really is not. It's got a border, the rich as hell and the poorer than dirt, and very rare do you get something in between, but I've worked hard for that position. I grew up always being told that I was destined for something greater, is this the greater? I really hope so. I grew up on the streets learning the ins and out, and being forced to grew up rather quickly. My childhood? Non-existent.

Anyway, I guess I should introduce myself...well I'm not really going to. As far as everyone here goes, I only go by Moxley. I'm not about to let Alliance dogs think I'm one of them by letting them call me by my real name, or even one of those "symbolic names" that they give their soldiers. Or do they get to pick them? I really don't care.

Now that I've gotten all these thoughts out of the way, I should get some sleep...but I don't think I'm going to be able to with all the chatter going on in the cell next door. So I guess I'll just lay here not giving a crap. Hopefully, I'll be able to sleep soon...I still have this pounding headache. I could feel myself on the edge of dream street, there's just that small tapping at the back of my head that doesn't seem to want me to rest easy. I was actually beginning to wonder what they were talking about in the cell next door.

The opening of the cell caught my attention and slowly I heard footsteps approaching. Wait weren't they in the cell next door though? I could hear them so damn clearly. They came closer and closer, I swallowed the lump in my throat. I was suddenly nervous as what was about to happen. They stopped right in front of my cell and I could feel someone's stern stare beating down on me. I sat up looking at the deep gray eyes that were staring down at me. I was a little taken back at seeing the person staring at me. He was a bit intimidating, with his well fit figure, dark hair, and that tribal ink going down his arm. He was staring right at me, standing there just being silent. Was this the guy chatting up a storm just next door? This silence was getting just a bit awkward.

****

~~~***~~~

_As I said, I grew up in what's called the "City of Knowledge", why was it called that? Because it home to the world's largest library, and bred some of the highest degree of intellectuals the world's ever seen...myself included. Where I'm from you just don't make a name for yourself without accomplishing nothing, and boy do the streets hail the name of Moxley._

_I was born into a household that didn't have a whole lot of money, but my mother gave me everything she could. Growing up was rough, we were practically on and off the streets just being able to scrape by with what we had. It made me more thankful though for just the clothes on my back, and at the age of eight I was already fighting hard to keep those clothes, and also to keep my mother and I safe. She meant everything to me, my bright light in my dark life. But even the brightest of lights eventually extinguish, and sadly my mother was no different. Over the years she looked like she began to give up hope, she'd apologize to me every day wishing she could provide me with a better life. It gave me motivation to fight harder, train harder. The weaker she got the more I had realized, she was sick, beyond sick, and I wish I had realized it sooner. But she always wore a bright smile to keep me from breaking down with her._

_I wasn't about to let the one good thing in my life fade away though. If she couldn't fight then I'd just have to for the both of us. At the age of fifteen, I dropped everything for her. I was going to get one of those high end doctors to see her. After leaving a school life behind, I began to fight on the streets. It started out with me basically mugging anyone I could find that looked like they had a fat stash of cash on them, but it wasn't enough. Quickly I learned of the underground fighting tournaments around the city, it was like it was my calling, and I needed the money._

_There was one in particular that had caught my eye on the west side of town. Wasn't too far from where we were staying, I asked around the slums where exactly I could find this tournament and it eventually landed me to this odd night club. Considering it's location, I don't think they cared that I obviously looked underaged, but they had let me in anyway. The hard base of the club was distracting as I was trying to find where this fighting tournament was taking place. The stench of the place made me absolutely sick, the cigarette smoke in the air, and the slight tang of blood hung, I was pretty sure there were some here who were more than just smoking and drinking. I tried not to get consumed by the atmosphere and continued my way to the back where I could at least get out of the crowd._

_Finally making it out of the sea of people I took a deep breath, I was holding it in some as to not be consumed by cigarette smoke. I looked around seeing a burly, bald man guarding a door with a green sign above with a picture of stairs. That had to be what I was looking for, all the clues pointed right at it. I carefully made my way to the door trying to look as casual as I could, when I finally got there I found myself having a bit of a stare down with the large gentleman with his deep brown eyes. The way he looked, and the way he was built he had to been from that isle of warriors, or whatever they call it. We both stood there awkwardly, silently, seeing who'd crack first. I couldn't let this guy intimidate me, or there's no way I'd be able to handle a fighting tournament. He finally leaned down, eyes looking me up and down while I can feel his hot breath on the top of my head. "Are you the one they call, Moxley?" he asked me in a very gruff voice._

_My eyes snapped up to meet with his again. That was surprising that he knew my name, probably explains why I was able to get into the club so easily. I didn't flinch, but my eyes did widen in surprise that he already knew my name. "Y-Yeah." I responded, with a bit of hesitation in my voice. Okay, so maybe I was a little nervous, but mostly due to the anticipation of being this close to my goal. After another brief stare down with the bouncer he stepped back some turning to the door. He pulled out a ring of keys that was hanging from his belt, unlocking the door and pushing it open stepping to the side for me. "Good luck, kid." he said firmly, but I sound sense the hint of sarcasm in his voice. He obviously had no faith in my abilities, and to be honest, who wouldn't I was sixteen year old kid._

****

~~~***~~~

Snapping back to reality from my trip down memory lane, I had realized that the muscle man was still staring at me. I stared at those gray eyes, he looked to be lost in thought as much as I was. He reminded me of the bouncer from that day, that day when Moxley was a named to be screamed across the streets. That day, I won more than just prize money, I won respect, and fame. I had begun to enter those kinds of tournaments frequently, but they still weren't enough. Shortly after my seventeenth birthday, my mother ended up passing away, but something I still kept to my heart was her gracious smile even on her deathbed. She knew she was dying, but had to remind me that everything was okay. Picturing her smile brought a tear to my eye, I wiped it away quickly. I couldn't let anyone in this facility see that. However, the muscle man staring down at me seemed to have noticed.

Meeting up to those gray eyes with my own blue orbs, made me realize something right away. There were small hints of regret something human, and probably the most human thing in this entire facility. Who the hell was this guy and just how long was he gonna sit there and stare at me? Inspecting his look he couldn't have been someone too important, he was wearing the same scrub outfit like the rest of the test subjects, but here those red jacket wearing excuse for a security wasn't hauling him off, more like waiting for him. This silent stalemate was getting pretty irksome, almost enough that I wanted to wander back into my usual habit of seeing how many buttons I could push on a person at the same time.

"How's your eyesight?" he asked me, -finally- breaking the long awaited silence. He spoke in a similar gruff voice as the bouncer from the club, only it felt a little more stern and backed by war like degree. By his voice alone this guy wasn't an ordinary test subject, this guy was a soldier.

I raised an eyebrow at him, why in the hell was he asking about my eyesight? From all accounts it was all crystal clear-wait...a little too clear. "Crystal," I answered him. I gave him a short answer not wanting to strike up a conversation with him about my eyesight. He looked to the side obviously talking to someone being blocked by the cell wall. I could hear them talking injections they put into eyes, and the ear shredding noises they had me listen to. Of course, I don't know what else happened after that, I was pretty sure I was left unconscious afterwards. I also had a vague memory of just telling those damn scientists to just lay it on me. I was ready for whatever they had in store for me.

Finally, I watched the muscle man walk away after finishing his conversation with the woman hidden behind the wall. The woman come up to open my cell door, she had brown hair all tied neatly into a bun, and the way she smiled could have made me cry. Her smile was identical to how my mother used to smile at me. "Johnathan?" she asked me, and that instantly sent probably every horrifying thought into my head. I hated hearing my actual name being thrown at me and I wasn't about to let them use it as casually as she did. I think she took notice of the sudden twitch that I had upon hearing my name, it had caused her to step back a bit. I didn't mean to scare her, but just hearing my name had a little bit of bad blood behind it. I left that man behind and I wanted it to stay that way, I shot her glare just in case she didn't get the hint. "Okay then," she paused, "Moxley."

I changed my expression to a more curious one now that she had gotten the message. I had no real intention on being a prick to her, just merely setting some boundaries that needed to be put in place, but in reality she didn't need to tell me anything. It's not like I didn't hear her entire conversation with the important muscle man to begin with. She opened her mouth to say something when I cut her off at the start of her little speech. "I heard everything," I told her with a smirk planted on my face. "I mean after all, isn't that what your experiment was? To make it so I can hear like a dog and see like a cat?" I kept up my grin as she just sat there and rolled her eyes at me, and who could blame her I was asking like a total know-it-all."So then, what's next miss?"

She rolled her eyes at me again, this is how I know I was getting under her skin. I hadn't had any human interaction for a few hours and that drove me nuts, I felt only slightly horrible that she had to be the prime reciever of my prodding. She hadn't closed the cell on me yet so there was a silver lining in that. I watched her pull the red rimmed reading glasses off the top of her head and the clipboard from under her arm. "Well, the Lieutenant Colonel, that man you just saw, has requested to have you monitored further, but at a more leisure level." So that guy was important! My observations are never wrong, and inside I was grinning in triumph. I tried not to let my thoughts get too carried away as I listened to this nice lady speak. "So just like I told the last subject, you're being transferred out of here." Well that's just the best news I've heard since I arrived-wait did she say I needed to be observed more? Was being able to damn near hear everything in this facility not considered a success?

I swung my legs over the cot, planting both feet on the floor, I suddenly stopped. My head started pounding again. I put a hand on my head to keep myself from getting completely dizzy, I think it was still an after effect from the experiments. I looked to my left to see that the nurse had a hand held out for me, still holding that infectious smile. I took her hand and she helped me stand, I can see why they wanted to observe me further. Maybe I needed it.

****

~~~***~~~

_After winning fighting tournament after fighting tournament, the slums of Atlas sang the name of Moxley. It got to a point where I just couldn't be ignored anymore. Somehow my name reached those on the other side, and suddenly I heard rumors that a bunch of big wig doctors were looking for me. My home town is a dangerous place, and even having just a little money on your put a giant target on your back. It was no secret that most of those rich hats liked to hire bodyguards on a day by day basis. Why is it so dangerous here? We're on the very east side of the Celestial Province, which means far away from Astros, and being that far from the capital...meant very little support from the Alliance military. Even those who didn't live on the street, had to fight to survive, that's what kind of a place I was from. When those rumors popped up, I felt like a light was reignited back in me._

_I was hired by many doctors but one in particular would always remain with me. He was an expert on human genetics and often let me have at his research journals, and also took time to teach me some basic first aid. He knew the dangers of the streets often reminding me that he came from them as well, so I needed to be able to take care of myself since my mother was no longer around. He taught me basic things like dressing wounds, and even being able to sew my own gashes shut. He was always there, it was like having a father figure there to guide me. It was strange feeling to have someone like that around, since I didn't have much of a father around to begin with. But that aged face and signature Atlean blue eyes just had so much conviction and iron behind it. The old man was pretty sincere and also very through in everything he did. This was a man who took pride and joy in what he did, and I couldn't help but smile every time a satisfied patient walked away after being in his care. I found myself growing attached, I knew I shouldn't have and constantly had to remind myself that it was only a business deal and it shouldn't be considered anything else. While under his payroll he pulled some strings to allow me access to the Library of Atlas, the world's largest library. While there I studied everything I could on human biology, chemistry, and different kinds of medical practices._

_That day had to be the second most tragic day in my life. The doctor had to answer a call, of a terrible accident, of course being his bodyguard I accompanied him to the scene. I was horrified at the sight that was laid in front of me. There were body bags everywhere, and even more dead bodies scattered around unaccounted for. The doctor lead me around keeping me out of the way from the law enforcement and the other doctors and paramedics. I was beginning to wonder what had happened here, I heard talking between the different officers talking about an attack on the University, and there is a possible chance that there might be another attack on the library. Why would someone do this? These were men and women studying hard to be the doctors of tomorrow. They worked hard as well, none of them deserved this. From what I observed, doctors were supposed to take a vow of nonviolence. They had no intention to hurt people, so why would someone inflict pain and death upon them?_

_I stood around waiting staying close to the doctor as he helped the patients. I was occasionally asked by the paramedics to help out with a few minor patients, in which I had no problems in doing it was good practice for me when eventually had to go back to the streets to take care of my own wounds. As I was helping the paramedics, another explosion went off near by. It was an attack on another University building. I ran to where I had left the good doctor to see that he was okay, but he looked like he was running after someone. To my surprise he had the good doctor's medical bag to be more precise. Seeing that made my blood boil. I made a bolt for the guy, running straight past doctor. I could hear him shouting at me as I closed the gap between the thief and I. That thief was after the doctor's bag for his research._

_We continued down the street, and the chase lasted a good six or so blocks before I was able to tackle him to the ground and wrench the bag from the thief. Ironically all in front of the library did our fight take place. We tussled on the ground for a while, exchanging punches and knees to the gut. But the guy wasn't nearly as practiced as me and I was eventually able to grab his arm and wrench it behind his back. I had no intention of killing the guy but I made sure to beat him to a pulp to where he was quivering in utter fear of my voice alone. I looked behind me to see that the doctor had caught up out of breath. I smiled at him, it was good to see that he was safe and out of harm's way. I didn't think about that I had just left him behind to catch this thief. "You betrayed us! You both did!" cried the thief as he struggled under my grasp. I caught a hint of what he meant, but I figured it was just nothing more than words of a mongrel looking for a pity party._

_The good doctor said nothing but pick up his bag off the floor smiling at the good work. "Good work, Moxley." he said with all the approval in his voice. It was always nice to hear the voice of a approval from anyone it always meant that I felt like I was doing something with my life. As my attention was stuck on the good doctor, I hadn't noticed he managed to sneak his other arm into his hoodie. Before I realized it he had pulled a switchblade out. I didn't notice it right away but the doctor certainly did. I heard the doctor calling out to me to look out and before I knew it he had shoved me off the thief._

_My eyes widened in horror at what happened. The thief managed to get that blade right in the got of the good doctor, causing him to drop his bag. The thief was merely standing there on wobbly legs grinning in triumph. At that point there was only blood in my eyes, he had killed the second best thing in my life. I rushed to catch the doctor as he gently fell back into my arms. I laid him down gently on the pavement as he shakily reached up cupping my cheek with a blood covered hand. He was still smiling, it was just like my mother, she was smiling as she died too. The thief was too weak to run at this point, he was one of those types where if he was going down he was gonna take someone with him, but he chose the wrong person to take down. He tried to come at me with the knife, I side stepped his out stretched him bringing an elbow down on his. I heard him cry out in pain as I heard something snap in his arm. He ended up dropping the knife as he came crashing down to the ground._

_With only vengeance swirling my mind I picked up the switchblade from off the floor. While he was writhing in pain from his now broken arm I walked over and kicked him in the kidney. Again and again I had kicked him over and over, there was only wanting nothing more than to cause him pain. I kept kicking him until he rolled over on his stomach. I wanted to see his terrified face as he faced death. I bent down straddling his waist and with only murder stricken in my eyes I jabbed that blade into his stomach. But I wasn't done there, I wanted him to feel how I felt in that moment. That feeling of having your heart ripped out of your chest. Again and again did I drive that blade into him, I didn't care that his blood was being splattered on my hands, I wanted him to feel my pain. I saw those deep blue eyes eventually roll to the back of his head when his sounds of screaming had stopped. I tossed the blade to the side wanting nothing more to do with it._

_I walked back over to where I left the doctor's body also picking up the bag from off the floor. At that moment I felt every emotion crawling up on me. My lip quivered, my eyes starting to burn and well up with tears. I knelt down not being able to hold back any more. I placed my head on the doctor's chest and poured every ounce of sadness I had from my being._

****

~~~***~~~

Before I knew she had taken me across the grounds and to another wing of the base. It looked like a set of dorm rooms. It was so much different from the experimental facility. It was nice to talk to someone who understood a bit about human biology. We were probably chatting up a storm to pass the time as we crossed the grounds. She finally took her leave after handing me a set of keys to the room and letting me know that my things had made it inside. I'd certainly hope so, I had a collection of medical studies and research journals in my possession and they were about the only things left I had of the good doctor.

Upon making it inside, I settled in quickly. I like that it was a lot roomier than the cell I had been locked in for weeks, as there was no longer the smell of burning flesh in the air, at least that's what it smelled like to me. I ended up stripping myself quickly and taking a long but very comforting shower. While I was in, I let my thoughts bounce around in my head. They constantly went back on that small light I had during those dark times in my life. First my mother, then the good doctor, and now this beautiful nurse, they all had that charming and very warm smiles. The kind that could it alone could melt even the coldest of hearts. They were all comforting things that always reminded me that there was good in the world, you just had to go looking for it. I spent so many years fighting, that things just seemed to start blending in together. I was just trying to keep a small fire inside ablaze that I had forgotten what it was I was fighting for.

I ended up saving all the money I got from the tournaments, and from being a bodyguard that I used it all to get to Astros, and accommodate myself. I spent those next years honing my fighting skills and studying the books I had taken with me, after all they were all I had. I continued to do my bodyguard work until I came across an offer by the Alliance. Apparently they heard about my work in Atlas, and asked for my expertise in their experiments. I found it odd that they knew I had been studying under the doctor, but like it had in the past I let my ego get the better of me. I didn't expect to become a test subject, but it wasn't all that bad. The things I could see, and the things I could hear, it was nothing like I could ever believe, and it made me think about just how much and how deep human genetics could actually go. The doctor used to lecture me on just how fragile the human body could be, and that in order to strengthen it we had to take it upon ourselves to prevent ourselves from being crushed by the weight of the world. Maybe this is why I wanted to be a test subject, I wanted to see that strength for myself.

After I was done with my shower, I changed into some lounging clothes still moving pretty slowly around my dorm, my legs still felt like they were ready to give way. As I pulled a tank top from my bag I spotted the paperwork sitting on my desk. I raised an eyebrow at the packet of papers sitting around, the nurse failed to mention that. I draped the my towel over my shoulders looking over the papers. These were the same papers they had me fill out before coming to this facility. I looked at the last paper in the packet, now I can see why it was just sitting there. I never answered the last question.

At the time I didn't even bother to think about what I could use for a second name, at the time my mind was stuck on what they had in mind that required expertise from someone that had no medical experience or a real education. I looked back on the pile of books I had spread out on my bed most of them all by the good doctor. I tilted my head at them reading the spine and the author. I chuckled to myself realizing that the good doctor was still with me, and as long as I kept those books I felt like he was still here. I thought back on all those moments when he used to lecture me on human biology, I never heard anyone talk about a single subject and generally sound so happy talking about it. I wiped the tear that was falling down my face.

I smiled realizing the mantle I wanted to take up. To take up the name of the good doctor would be an honor. With a revitalized smile on my face I happily signed the name at the bottom of the paper.

_Dean Ambrose_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that you know now the origins of Dean Ambrose, the medic from Atlas


	3. The War Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No amount of training could have prepared Roman Reigns for this, but as a man who only knows how to push forward he'll do his best to rekindle the flame in his heart that had once burnt out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm REALLY sorry this is late! I've been a big ball of stress lately due to having a new position at work. But here's chapter 3 finally, and it's from Roman's PoV.

I sat in my office with my hands balled up in my hair. I hurt and I was hurting bad. What did I sign up for? Why was I assigned to this project? There was a deep guilt starting to sink into the bottom of my stomach. I wondered what my family would think if they saw me right now. I’d hope they wouldn’t be disgusted that I was basically condoning what were inhumane experiments. This isn’t what I was taught, and I let myself get blinded by a promotion so that I could “oversee” a project that I had no idea what was going on. I eyed the almost empty bottle of whiskey just thinking about everything that goes on in the facility. In the state I was in I could barely remember if the bottle was full before I started drinking. I leaned back in my chair looking at the ceiling shooting back another shot of the amber liquid. It wasn’t common of me to drink like this, but after being in that facility after everything that’s happened on both me, the volunteers, and even my fellow soldiers I had to raise a glass. 

Putting the glass down I sighed deeply to myself, rubbing my arm in the places where they had put the injections. I stared deeply at the glass it was cracked a little the the melted ice seeping through the glass. I still didn’t know my own strength, and now matter now gentle and delicate I was with something it’d still break under what seemed to me as gentle pressure. This was my punishment for letting things get this far, I knew in my gut that these experiments weren’t going to be pretty, but I had to see them for myself, I needed to know what was happening. I was raised to make sure I was willing to do something before asking another, and it didn’t seem right to oversee the project but not volunteer myself. I put myself in this predicament in hopes to wash away all the fears and doubt that was cast over this experiment in the first place. A decorated veteran like myself...who was I kidding? 

My attention was suddenly caught by the sound of knocking on the door. Slowly, I leaned forward listening to my chair creak as I stared at the door, listening to a second set of knocks. I reached my hands up to fix my long black tress back into a neater bun than it was already in. I tried to straighten myself up some as to make it I wasn’t completely drunk. “Come in.” I called out try my hardest not to slur my words, through the hard slap that the whiskey was giving me. I took a deep breath still trying to straighten myself out trying not to look like a complete mess. Of course when she opened the door she took one look at me and rolled her crystal blue eyes at me. She knew right away I was drunk, she was the one person in this facility who knew me the most. She worked the closest to me, acting as both my secretary and the one who helps me look over the nearly all the test subjects. “I brought you those files you asked for, we just finished collecting a few packets of paperwork from several subjects. That’s what took us so long,” She explained. 

I couldn’t be more thankful for this lovely nurse, Cassandra, I felt lucky and spoiled to have her and I think that goes for the facility. I carefully watched her as she slowly approached the my desk, as she placed down two cream colored folders down on my desk and picked up my cracked glass and nearly empty bottle of whiskey. I looked curiously at the two folders, that were placed down in front of my my brow furring in thought. “They’re what you requested,” she said to me looking absolutely distraught that she had caught me drinking. I watched he turn for the door not daring to look back at me. Quietly she left, leaving me with my own thoughts. 

I carefully opened both folders remembering why I requested them. They were the two test subjects that had interested me since arriving. Both their backgrounds and their individual experiments, had intrigued me. As a recently appointed Lieutenant Colonel, I have an ability to make my own squadron of my choice. I could just pick some decorated soldiers but, I felt like picking those without an extensive military background would grow and learn better without an ego getting in the way of progress. I had specific idea in mind for the future, so I wanted to keep my squadron small. Both folders were full of information I needed, from the basics like height and weight right down to their skills. Both men were skilled in hand to hand combat, one more practiced than the other but the other had quite the record of medical training including his expertise in this experiment. 

Looking over the words I started to feel sleepy mumbling some of the important details to myself. What mostly stuck to my mind was their names, and the symbolic they chose for themselves. As for me, who I was isn’t important mostly everyone knows me as Roman Reigns, I’m a decorated veteran of the Alliance military and also a test subject of this facility.

**~~~***~~~**

_Where I come from isn’t officially apart of the Alliance just an allied territory since our island was just outside of border of the Celestial Providence. But our people made a pact with them and under the Alliance’s guidance we’ve remained safe thus far, the only thing they required from our people was to let them set up an outpost on our island for tactical reasons. The Alliance has many enemies, and wanted any advantage they could get, a small sacrifice for the protection they were offering us._

_As they were building the outpost, I remember my brother and I walking past it every day back and forth from school. It was fascinating to slowly watch it get built from just an empty space to a full fledged military base, and even after it was built I used to watch it from a nearby hill. I admired the training and formation drills, and how complete strangers could come together and form a unit. Everything I watched them do began to spark something in me. They were here to protect us and deep down I felt like I should be doing the same for my friends and family. After all, that’s what my family did, they taught their children to be warriors, to defend their families like our lives depended on it. They didn’t call our home the “Island of Warriors” for nothing. Even at a young age I knew what it was I wanted to do, I wasn’t going to let anyone stand in the way of that._

_It was nice that my family hadn’t disapproved of what I wanted to do, in fact they praised me for it. I’d be one of the first to represent our people for the Alliance. To prepare me for what’s to come, my father began to train me to prepare me for both mind and body, often taking back and forth from Astros even to get a better understanding of what the Falishian Alliance was and why they existed. According to some of the research I did, the Alliance was made of three provinces of the main land: The Celestial Providence, the Asgard Providence, and the Solaris Providence. They formed a unity under one pact to protect one another under from anyone that that brought a great threat to them, and from what I gathered since the union was formed no threat has been able to stand against it._

_I was eighteen years old when I officially left for Astros, to leave behind the life I lived. I was nervous...very nervous. Although I had been to Astros a few times, never had I been there alone. I probably stood outside the recruiter’s office for a good half an hour staring at the door with my sack slung over my shoulder. The big city atmosphere and sounds of the breeze of the autumn whirling through the towering skyscrapers didn’t help any at all. I was suddenly approached by another young man cutting my attentions off from the door. He was a bit shorter than me, short dirty blonde hair, and a hazel colored eyes. We had a bit of a stare down before turning both our attentions to the door. With the way he stared and the why his body looked, I could tell this kid was just as nervous as I was and who could blame him, we were both take a huge step in our lives._

_Those hazel orbs turned its attention back to me as a placed a hand on the door still unable to push the door open. My breathing was steady and my heart was pounding this by far was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. “They say once you step through that door, your life changes forever.” said the kid. I looked at him again nodding. Already the two of us felt a connection, just standing here next to this kid I could already feel he was going to be around for a while. He stuck his hand out to me, as I stared at him blankly. “Desmond.” he said introducing himself._

_Still confused I shook his hand, “Joe,” I responded introducing myself. It was actually calming my nerves some. When I originally made the decision to join the military I didn’t think it was gonna be this hard, but now that I was actually here it suddenly became a huge weight in my heart. But this kid who was about nervous as I, seemed to care about calming my nerves first. Silence hung in the air around us after introducing ourselves. He too placed a hand on the door and it became a stalemate to see who’d push it open first. After a few moments, my muscles tensed and slowly I was the first to finally push open the door. I let him walk in first, following in right afterwards._

**~~~***~~~**

I made a grunting sound as I snapped awake to the sun beaming down on me through the window. The light was harsh as I used my hand to block the sun from eyes. I felt groggy and more than likely I was hungover. I looked down to see that the two files I had requested were still open and thankfully intact. I looked over to the corner of my desk to see that there was a mug full of still steaming coffee. Cassandra must have just left that for me as I slept. She probably would have waited on me but the poor nurse was always busy watching over the test subjects. I looked down to see that the two files I had requested were still sitting in front of me still intact. I sighed, rubbing my temples, maybe drinking as much as I did the night before was not a very good idea.

I looked out the small crack in the window just wondering why I had dreamed of my first encounter of Desmond Lorken. We started out in basic at the same exact time, and had trained together since that first encounter. I got to know him a lot learning that he was from a smaller city in the Celestial Providence. We were practically inseparable, until after basic when we both moved on to separate branches. He decided to take a more logistic role dealing with more of the business dealings of the military where I had moved on to being apart of the special ops division, in which I had to take up a symbolical name. I found it ironic that I hadn’t seen Desmond up until now, where he was a second overseer of this project and I’m sure that I was going to be seeing a lot more of him in the time to come. 

Returning my focus on the files of the two subjects, I began to think about how I was gonna approach the two about joining special ops. The two didn’t have a military background, and I certainly didn’t want them forced into a unit with no forewarning. I thought by personally asking both of them myself, would ease the tension and their minds. Being an overseer and apart of the project, I knew what kind of inhumane experiments they were conducting, who knew how much their minds were warped? There was only one way to find out. Finishing off my coffee I closed both folders, eyeing the window and the grounds and the scenery around it.

I had almost forgotten that this station was in the middle of a dry desert, but it wasn’t too far off from the main city as I could see the central tower of Astros in the distance. It showed that we weren’t that far from the main capital itself, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise that I could see it. The people of Astros always praised it for being the largest city in the Alliance, even Atlas, the second biggest city, was bigger than the capitals of the Asgard and Solaris provinces.

I let my eyes travel down eyeing the training grounds. The entire place was cleanly paved, and surrounded by chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Every corner of the fence had a guard tower with at least two guards at the top armed with sniper rifles. It disgusted me that this place looked more like a prison than a military training ground and research facility, but I guess when you have super powered test subjects precautions had to be made. My eyes wandered spotting the research facility itself, it was the largest building on the grounds, but also the most plain looking. To me it was just a large gray colored, brick cube, but you could definitely tell that of the three buildings it was the sturdiest with the thickest walls. My eyes wandered again eyeing the track, a large rectangular grass field surrounded by a dark orange colored clay race track, and to my notice...there was one person running on it. Suddenly, getting a little exercise sounded pretty good. 

Finishing off the coffee I stood stretching my arms above my head. I hissed a moment at the pain front letting my muscles stretch out, they were still sore from all the injections but probably having a full night’s rest at my desk didn’t help either, my face twisted a little at the sound of my back popping in a few places. I turned for the door behind my desk that lead into my own private quarters. I placed a hand on the knob suddenly freezing in my place. I looked down my hand started shaking and I began to feel terrified suddenly remembering the glass I almost shattered from the night before. I tried to steady my breathing, I wasn’t afraid of opening it I was just afraid of myself. Once I got my breathing steady I slowly turned the knob and pushed open the door, I was honestly surprised that I managed to not just rip it off it’s hinges. After taking a shower and getting dressed into a gray tank top with gray athletic shorts, I really hoped this little run may clear my head some.

**~~~***~~~**

_I was moved to a special ops division of the military after showing tactical expertise in a combat environment. Some of the ways they trained these special ops soldiers was putting them in teams against one another so see who could out wit who, by use of strategical positioning and combat expertise. During training they held these contests often and every time I had led my team to victory. Eventually, when I was done with my training I was assigned to a unit led by decorated veteran. I was honestly surprised and excited at the same time to work with someone who had seen constant battle and was rumored that he always come out without a scratch. I wondered if someone like me, a fresh recruit could even keep up with him, but he assured it me was something yet to be seen._

_I sat in my dorm on my last night of training just thinking about what I could use for my symbolic name. During my past times I’d read legends and stories about kings and conquerors, legends of entire empires build from conquest, but no story caught my attention more than the legend of the Roman Empire. Fierce, strong, they let none stand against them, a true super power of their time. Weather or not it actually existed was beyond me, but I’d become that which can’t be toppled unless overpowered. Could I become that conqueror? I signed the name with determination filled within my heart._

_Roman Reigns_

_As I was packing up my things for the next morning, I got a knock at my door shouting from inside to come in I was surprised to see that it was the squadron leader came to see me personally. I stood at attention only for him to give me a small chuckle. He waved his hand to signal that I could stand at ease. Once relaxed he gave me this relaxing smile, it confused me as to why he was having this silent conversation with me, but watching him long enough I could tell he was almost inspecting me. I raised an eyebrow as those crystal blue eyes scanned around the room, moving some of that medium length brown hair from his face he finally spoke. “I’m impressed with you,” he said with his thick accent commonly known to those down south of the Celestial Providence. “Top of your classes, already an expert strategist, and proficient with almost every firearm known to the Alliance. I feel like I’ve been blessed, to have you in my squadron,” he praised, I could only smirk in response. “You’re gonna do great, Reigns.”_

_I felt like I hadn’t done anything yet to deserve that kind of praise, but I accepted it anyway. From what I had heard, if Colonel Styles wanted you in his squadron, then you had to something. I wouldn’t let him down, especially not after that kind of praise. I watched him give me a salute as I returned one back, he quietly left my dorm with an approving grin planted on his face. I wanted to know what he had in store for me that he personally would come and tell me things everyone on the station knew._

**~~~***~~~**

Crossing the grounds, I made my way over to the track. I was relieved that I hadn’t torn anymore doors off it’s hinges, maybe I was really learning how to control my strength finally. That same man I spotted earlier in the same gray t-shirt and black shorts was still jogging the track, his dark hair flailing behind him and a freshly dyed gold streak, which actually boggled me how he was able to dye his hair unless it was in his belongings at the time. I watched him for a bit, completely distracted from what I originally had come out there for, this was one of the men on the files I had requested. Seeing that he was still out here told me that he had quite the stamina, and endurance. He started to slow when he noticed that I was watching him. I crossed my arms over my chest remembering that this is what Colonel Styles used to do as well. Watch his squadron to see how well they could fare. Finally he stopped running staring back at me. Those brown orbs shooting a curious glance as he approached me slowly.

It was a bit of a stare down at first, he was probably wondering why I was just standing there watching him exercise. “Mr. Black right?” I asked him. He only responded with an annoyed sigh and the rolling of his eyes. This isn’t how I wanted to make a first impression, perhaps he was annoyed that I was just watching him or something else. 

“Look, if you guys are gonna make me change my name,” he started with a bit of venom dripping from his voice. “At least call me by the name I gave you.” I could at least understand that point. It was hard to be called by your real name once you’ve been asked to change your own, but I guess because I was so used to being called by my symbolic name I hadn’t even thought about someone who was new to this system. Surely he knew he had to know that he was being asked to join special ops, it was how the Alliance functioned. His case I knew was different circumstances, but all the same he was an Alliance soldier now. “The nurse told me about you,” he started again. “Hard to forget that kind of ink you got going down your arm.” 

“Sorry,” I held my hands up in defense, I felt already off on the wrong foot with him, I didn’t need to drive the nail into the coffin before I could even get to know him. When he mentioned my tattoo I instinctively placed a hand on my arm, only to shudder a bit when I felt those welts left behind from my injections. He took note of this as his annoyed expression turned into one of a bit of worry, however I wasn’t concerned with myself. My focus was on him, and my want to make sure he wasn’t gonna feel confined or forced to do anything he didn’t want. “How are you feeling?” I remember reading everything in his file about the experiment, and honestly I felt like I got off light compared to him. I even begin to imagine the agony he went through having your skin cut open to have a film implanted between the layers. The file even mentioned about not being able to feel anything for at least a whole month as the film became more integrated with his body. 

He looked at me and shrugged not giving me a real answer, I figured I shouldn’t get much out of a man with his kind of background. The air between the two of us was getting tense, as I could tell he didn’t want to talk about the procedure, and that was fair. I don’t think anyone would want to remember the things that went on inside the facility, not even me and I was the overseer of the place. “I’m highly interested in your skills, Mr. Rollins. As a newly appointed Lieutenant Colonel, I have choice of my own squadron and I’d very much like you to be apart of it, someone with your finesse is just what I need. Take it as you will, but I’m not gonna force or even blame you if you decline.” I looked over his shoulder to see that it was just my luck to find the other subject laying down in the grass probably just relaxing at the moment. For now I’d leave Seth to his thoughts as I figured I’d take the opportunity to talk to the other man while he was here. 

Walking past the assassin I slowly approached the other man, Ambrose if I had to recall his name from his file. I’d try not to make the same mistake with him as I did with Seth. “Mr--” he cut me off before I could even begin to speak by raising his hand. He remained lying down in that grass, eyes still closed soaking in the sun of the late spring heat, which also made me curious was that why he was wearing a leather jacket in this kind of weather. Not a cloud in the sky with only the bright sun beating down on both of us. His hand remained there but his facial expression remained unchanged, he had that look of someone who was always thinking, someone whose mind was always running and never stopping. He too was just the kind of person I needed, as well as his extensive medical ingenuity. It never hurt to have a medic around especially in the heat of combat, made me wonder if he was capable of that. 

“First off, unless I know you, you will only address me by Moxley, and second I heard everything between you and that running man,” he said with his gruff voice and hints of bitterness. I stepped back a some realizing he seemed to be a bit more annoyed than Rollins, but considering his background I wasn’t surprised to see that he was not ready to trust people. I’ve had a few encounters with Atlean natives and most of them were pretty unfriendly like him. I watched his expression suddenly change from annoyance to a grin. He slowly sat up stretching his arms out above his head giving a yawn and a loud groan before finally peeling his eyes open to look at me still with that smirk on his face. He stood up brushing some of the loose grass off his jeans and stuck his hand out to me. “Scratch that, just call me Dean, since I gotta get used to being called that.” I was shocked to see that his demeanor changed so quickly, just want kind of a man was this Dean Ambrose was, but I had a feeling I was about to find out. I took his hand and shook it, but quickly jerked back when I heard the hiss of pain that was coming from the other man. I must have squeezed his hand too hard. 

I looked to the side out of embarrassment hoping this wouldn’t take me back at trying to build trust between myself and the younger man. Instead of annoyance though, he had still a grin plastered on his face. “What else can you do, Lieutenant Colonel?” he asked putting a lot of emphasis on my rank with mocking tone of voice. I was pretty sure he was trying to get under my skin with that tone but yet the words didn’t seem to ooze with venom, it seemed more playful almost like a younger sibling. Already I could feel myself getting a little attached to this man, maybe that’s why he had the background he did. Maybe Doctor Ambrose saw the same thing in him that I was seeing right now, he was rough on the outside but was as human as they got. He was being playful despite knowing that I was supervising figure in this station, and these experiments. Since he was being friendly though all this, I decided that I’d grant his request. I walked over and with one quick motion scooped him up into one arm and slung him over my shoulder. I could feel his tapping on my shoulder blade, not all that impressed. Although it was impressive to me, according to his file this man was just above two hundred twenty pounds of mostly muscle and here I was picking him up like he was a small child. I needed more proof since at this point he was challenging me.

I looked over still holding him, and mostly impressed that he wasn’t flailing. Seth hadn’t moved much from his spot and looked like he was doing some post exercise stretches. Dean’s intoxicating grin left a lasting effect that I now had one on my face. Still holding him I walked over and with no warning scooped Seth up in my other arm all the while the small man had a blank stare written on his face. He probably had no idea what was going on, but still to me both of them weighed at nothing, and the only sound that filled the air between the three of us was Atlean’s infectious laughter, I don’t think he expected for me to haul Seth over my shoulder as well. Finally after a few moments of playful banter and annoyed sighs I put the two of them down. The smaller one looking between the two of us in utter bewilderment wondering just what was going on. I expected him to bolt but for some reason he stayed, maybe even a small crack of a smile on his face. After Dean and I’s laughter died down there was only silence ringing around us, but not a tense one seeing the smiles all planted on our faces. 

I could get used to this, and maybe without pointing it out the three of us had bonded for the first time. I believe that moment was trying to sink in for the three of us. Three total strangers hitting it off, as if we had known each other for years already. To be able to talk, joke, and overall be comfortable with one another was just the first step in becoming a team. I felt suddenly a little nostalgic, this was the same exact path when I originally joined Colonel Styles’ team.

I was okay with this, but were they ready to take on the mantle of becoming Alliance soldiers?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the story of the decorated soldier, Roman Reigns. 
> 
> Until next time I hope you've been enjoying so far. :D


	4. Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To understand one another are only the first steps into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on the rest of this story is from Seth's PoV
> 
> Enjoy! :D

It had been a week since the first time I had officially met my new teammates, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. Although the three of us seemed to hit it off that first day I still had my doubts I kept to myself. We hadn’t been doing any military drills yet, but I had spent a lot of time on the grounds and training facilities mostly honing my own body and mind for the days to come. There were still places I avoided like the research center, and places I wasn’t allowed in like the shooting range. My mind was focused on how spent so long working by myself it never came to mind what would happen when it came to working with others. Sure, I got along with them, but this was only the first week, according to the Lieutenant Colonel the months almost year he spent training for special ops wasn’t an easy task. According to him the biggest hill him and his squad had to get over was their own egos, to be the one in charge, to try and be the man that lead everyone to victory. Was Roman, Dean, and I ready for that? I had my own fears and my own ego to get over, I was raised on being told I was meant to be the best. With these thoughts swirling my head I gave a long sigh as I leaned my head back to stare up at the ceiling of my dorm. 

In this last week, I had noticed the implantation had completely taken over my body. It was hard for me to look in a mirror at this point knowing that I was an Alliance attack dog now. I felt utterly disgusted that I let them do this to me, but I had no choice. I felt like I got off light compared to the other option. Was giving a former assassin the ability to completely go intangible a good idea? Roman thinks it is. I was still nervous for everything, we hadn’t spoken much to one another since that first meeting mostly due to Roman being cooped up in his office, he was still needed a lot in the research facility, and I didn’t really see Dean around and when I did he usually had a book in hand. I placed a hand on on my arm, causing me to shudder in disgust. I couldn’t feel my fingertips on my arm, I felt disgusted as I quickly retracted my arm back from my hand. Fear shot through my body and I began to shiver slowly watching my body begin to disappear in the mirror. I backed away from the mirror and turned away from it, clenching my eyes tightly I didn’t want to watch what was happening. My breathing started to speed up as it felt I was trying to grasp for air, it was felt like I was choking on nothing and was starting to feel nauseous. 

I was terrified when suddenly my head snapped up and turned it’s attention to the sound of knocking on my door. I looked down at my arms first and realized they were slowly turning intangible again. I had to get this invisibility under control or I was gonna driven mad from all of this. I let my breathing become steadier, as I wiped the sweat that collected on my brow. “If you hyperventilate like that, you risk both fainting or even a seizure.” I heard through the door, curse Dean’s incredible hearing. I rolled my eyes at his little speech, although it was annoying that he was practically an open encyclopedia of medical practices it was always nice to know that there was someone around who cared. That was hard to find here. I took his advice to heart as my breathing slowed down and stopped shaking, as I watched my arms return to normal once again. Fixing my hair a bit I finally, decided to open the door. 

It was no surprise to see a grin planted on the face of the Atlean native, still was baffling to me as to why he was always smiling and grinning despite knowing that he was used as a lab rat. There was a lot of things I didn’t understand about him or even Roman or even the idea of being able to work with others. But it seemed Dean was willing to entertain the idea, but knowing almost nothing about him there could have been a multitude of reasons. He was standing there in his leather jacket and white tank top complete with his dark blue jeans. I hadn’t seen him wear much past that, and he probably wasn’t here to talk about his choices in clothing. There was a pause between the two of us as he just stood there hands in his jacket pockets. This was the other hill to get over, who knew what he was thinking or why he came to my dorm. I watched him carefully as he took one hand and scratched the back of his head. It was pretty astonishing that someone who always looked to confident could look so nervous. 

I crossed my arms over my chest just waiting for him to speak up as he stood here looking like a nervous child, but then it had hit me. He had never spoken to me one on one, in the last week Roman was always there to be like a moderator, this was something new for both of us. He tried to speak but it seemed like he couldn’t get past all the “uhhs” and “umms”. I raised an eyebrow at him still waiting for him to speak, this was a completely new side of Moxley, or Dean Ambrose. I raised my hand to cut him off as he tried to collect his words. “You’re gonna have to get used to talking to me if we’re gonna be working together, Mr. Ambrose,” I spoke to him calmly.

I stared at him intently and patiently, as he collected this thoughts. I had my own doubts about him, but seeing his brows furrowed in thought meant he was trying, and I didn’t blame him one bit the only thing we had in common was Roman. He sighed deeply, after he was done looking down at the ground, “Roman wants to meet us at the front gate,” he started. “He didn’t give me much details.” I nodded in response, just carefully listening to what he had to say. He spent almost the entire time scratching the back of his head just trying to speak one sentence. My mind drifted to what Roman wanted from both of us that he’d need us at the front gate for. I guess we were about to find out.

**~~~***~~~**

After my encounter with Dean, I showered and got ready for whatever it was Roman had for us. Seeing Dean dressed in some casual clothing, I decided the same settling on a pair of jeans and a dark red t-shirt, I knew I’d regret the dark clothing later but it was all I really had, probably habits from my previous life. After throwing my hair up, I left my down quietly making my way out to the grounds. As I crossed the grounds my eyes fixated on the research facility. It was strange to me how things suddenly changed in one week, to be stricken with fear from an unknown and very dangerous experiment to suddenly being able to relax in comfort. Who knew how many more test subjects that were in there, and how many more different experiments was there still left to do. I’d hadn’t met any other test subjects besides Dean and Roman and I still had to stomach the thought of being the first. I needed to void myself of that thought and quickly turned my back away from it to head towards the northernmost part of the base, the gate that faced Astros.

I finally made it to to the north gate, to see that Dean had been waiting leaning up against a black jeep and his jacket draped over the back seats. The door had the symbol of the Alliance military, which meant we might be in for some training was my guess. Dean had his head tilted down with one foot on rested on one of the back tires his leg bouncing in anticipation. I could see that he had to have been as clueless as I was about this whole excursion, one of the first things I learned about Roman right away was subtly wasn’t his strongest point but I guess that’s where I came in. I didn’t dare speak up at least not yet anyway especially after how well our last conversation went, I was still overwhelmed myself. 

The long minutes felt like hours as the two of us leaned on opposite sides of the jeep saying nothing to one another. How would we anyway? We both came from two different backgrounds joined together by one cause...Roman’s resolve. Snapping me out of my thoughts was a very exasperated groan coming from the other man, and I understood why. I was starting to get a little annoyed myself waiting all this time in the late spring heat, I was starting to regret the dark clothing. 

I looked over at Dean whose head suddenly snapped up looking in the direction of the research facility where I could barely make out the figure of a man approaching us. Dean looked over to me seeing that I was squinting to get a better look at who it was. “Not Roman,” he said to save me from further straining myself. As the man came into view the first thing I noticed was his cleanly shaven head and a well trimmed neck beard. His uniform was neatly pressed, with a white dress shirt military’s emblem pressed onto the short sleeves. Black slacks neatly hemmed, with beautiful gold trimming down the sides, and to complete it black shoes polished to perfection. I eyed the badge that was pinned to the right side of his chest, it took me a moment of observation to realize that this man was higher ranked than even Roman. I didn’t know much about the military, but I knew enough to somewhat understand their ranks. If he was approaching us, I guess we were about to find out who he was. 

He looked back and forth between the two of us, hazel eyes carefully examining the both of us. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.” he greeted us with a deep almost no nonsense voice. He was much different from Roman in vocal tone alone. On the Lieutenant Colonel there was at least a sense of care behind that war like mannerisms, this guy felt to be all business it even showed straight down into his posture. His hands tucked behind his back, the way he made sure he was standing up right. Something felt completely off about this man. I looked over at Dean who looked like he was ready to listen to whatever this soldier had to say. “I am Brigadier General Desmond Lorken, I’m one of the overseers of this facility, and you two must be the successful subjects: Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose alongside Reigns,” At least he knew who we were, but I guess if you’re an overseer of this place you gotta know everything that goes on. I listened intently to what he had to say only looking back for a brief moment to see how Dean was reacting to all this, it was no surprise to see his annoyed posture hadn’t changed. “As an overseer of this place, I thought I’d come out here personally and congratulate both of you on the success. You’re both in good hands with the Lieutenant Colonel, I wish you all the luck in your training.” There had to be more to this guy than just congratulating us on being lab rats. With that short speech he turned around and left back towards the office building on the other side of the facility, his hands still tucked behind his back. 

Dean and I looked at one another shrugging in unison, not even understanding what just happened. I figured we’d just ask Roman about him later, but something told me we’d be seeing a lot more of him in the future. “It’s about time!” I heard Dean shouting as he turned towards the office building once more. I turned to see whom he had his attentions on now, and to my delight it was Roman running towards us looking a bit out of breath. I was expecting to also be in uniform just like Lorken was wearing, but looks like he settled on something a little more casual wearing. My eyes widened seeing his arms, and the welts they were littered with. I guess I had never stopped to observe them fully since the first time I saw him because I was so tired but now that I wasn’t exhausted I was able to see them clearly. I tried not to think about what kind of hell he had to endure seeing that many spots where they injected him. I looked to the side not trying to show my worry. I’m sure Roman didn’t drag us out here to talk about his procedures. 

The older man gave us both a sheepish smile scratching the back of his head nervously, he looked almost exactly like Dean when he came to my dorm this morning. I found it a bit entertaining how close they actually were in personality, made me feel like I was a bit of an odd man out. “Sorry I’m late, Cassandra had me sign off on a stack of paperwork for a few more successful subjects. I mentioned that you guys were waiting for me but she wouldn’t let me go.” I should have figured it something like that, he was still an overseer of this facility and probably had people in and out of his office all day. 

I watched Dean hop up into the back seat of the jeep with almost no hesitation sprawling out his long body across the whole back seat hands behind his head. “Let's get going already!” Dean snapped his patience already ran thin. Roman sighed, and just got into the driver’s seat of the jeep as I crawled into the passenger’s side. “Where are we headed anyway?” asked the Atlean not realizing he actually had no idea what was going on. I had almost forgotten that Dean was just as much in the dark as I was. 

“Just heading into the city. You’re both recommended for rest and relaxation, and I don’t think this is really the ideal place for that. I think some time into the city will do us some good.” My head snapped to the side staring at Roman with an eyebrow raised. Did I just hear that correctly? This entire time I was worried about this could be something serious possibly dangerous, which would be understanding why he’d be so secretive. This Roman Reigns was certainly something, but at least his heart was in the right place. He seemed to be open about letting us in, but I wasn’t sure if I was and I really couldn’t speak for Dean either, especially since I knew the Atlean even less.

**~~~***~~~**

The short ride through the desert had been eerily quiet, with a tension hanging in the air. I looked down at my hands that were clasped together in my lap. I was just twiddling my thumbs not knowing what to say or even do, I wasn’t used to having company. I cursed my own upbringing for that side of myself, since most of my life was dedicated to becoming a master assassin. It was awkward, and I felt like a child waiting for a lecture probably looked like one too with the way I was fidgeting. I looked back at Dean who was still spread out in the back seat of the jeep, hands still behind his head and head tilted down. It was hard to say what was on his mind with his sunglasses blocking his eyes, but he was probably lost in thought just as much as I was.

I looked up to see that we were approaching Astros faster than I had anticipated, I could feel my heart starting to beat a little faster as I suddenly grew nervous. It had slipped my mind before but now coming back here reminded me how exactly I ended up in the facility in the first place. As the memories started flooding into me one by one, I was starting to realize just how much everything had changed in the last month. 

When I arrived to Astros originally, I had continued my work, small odd jobs here and there, no bloodshed though and I was thankful for that, but someone in the Alliance had picked up on me, and before I knew it, I had been lured and captured by the military. They had eyes and ears everywhere it turned out and they knew what I had done in Wyndmere. They knew everything, and that day I learned that the Alliance was more powerful than I had ever could have imagined. They were going to execute me, and that was gonna be the end of it. I had only one shining ray of hope left in this dark world, and that was Project: Taladen. The Alliance military and I had made an exchange: they wipe my record of any criminal activity including the assassination and I take part in the experiment. Remembering all this caused me to become light headed, my gut felt like it was twisting in all kinds of knots threatening to send back up the entirety of my breakfast. 

“Seth?” I heard Dean question as he placed a hand on my shoulder, I also suddenly felt the wind through my hair die down as Roman began to pull over. I looked up from my hands my body shaking to no end, they were both looking at me with worry in their eyes. This was yet another feeling to get used to, the care of someone else. I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread, but I couldn’t deny that the hand on my shoulder was very comforting. I looked back down at my hands staring intently at them, I was almost expecting them to turn invisible by now, but they weren’t. Why was that? Normally when I had panic attacks like this it’s the first thing my body wanted to do. My mind shifted over to the comforting hand on my shoulder.

“Look we don’t have to do this if you’re uncomfortable, Seth.” blurted out Roman, at least he was understanding. But I slowly shook my head as my nerves began to calm. Weather it happened now or later, it was eventually going to happen. Dean and Roman were my partners now and I had no choice to accept that.

**~~~***~~~**

The air around us was ungodly tense when finally I felt that hand on my shoulder pull back. I finally looked up from my hands to see that Dean went back to his relaxed position with his hands behind his head. “I am starving!” He exclaimed both trying to lift some of the tension and change the subject. Roman smiled leaning back into his seat turning on the jeep once again, I hadn’t stopped to think about my own needs but some food did sound good. Now that he had mentioned it we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast that morning, and it was starting to get late into the afternoon. Maybe some sustenance would help lift our spirits, after all Roman had brought us out here to relax. Once we were all settled in once more and relaxed, we started down the road again hitting the outer rims of the vast city.

No matter how many times I came or even the years I spent living in this city, it was still unbelievable that a city could become so grand, but I think that just reflected my upbringing. I had to get rid of these thoughts, the more I tried not to think of my home the more I thought about it. The vast differences was so astonishing that it was almost surreal at times. I sometimes couldn’t understand how either man could handle it, I sometimes found myself getting dizzy at points because how tight all the skyscrapers were together. Dean maybe, he grew up in this environment, it was more or less an everyday thing for him but Roman on the other hands in the few times I talked to him he had only come to the big city to join the military but didn’t spend a whole lot of time in it since he was in and out of training for special ops. It was so infuriating to me that I couldn’t rid myself of these thoughts when I should be focused on getting to know my new partners. My whole body fell stiff as I felt the jeep slowing down once more the rush of wind dying down once more. I tried to relax...I needed to relax.

“So, are you eventually gonna fill us in on the details, Roman?” asked Dean as he broke the tense and awkward silence. It didn’t occur to me that older man had yet to tell us where we were going other than in the city. With my thoughts all in a mess I hadn’t even bothered with the details of this trip. As we all shut the doors on the jeep after stepping out Roman looked at the both of us shrugging his shoulders. Something told me he hadn’t thought this out thoroughly enough. Was he just using us as an excuse to get away from the research facility? I heard from the other soldiers that on the battlefield the Lieutenant Colonel was a genius strategist which caught the attentions of the higher ups and in a short career he was already promoted to First Lieutenant, which from what I understood took most soldiers years upon years to reach, but in an everyday situation? He didn’t seem to be an architect on that. 

We left the jeep in a parking garage across the street from a shopping mall that was well guarded by security, after all the last thing we needed for someone to steal a military owned vehicle. We started down the street just simply following Roman who I’m sure was just going wherever his legs decided to take him. My eyes shifted to the Atlean who looked just as he did on the trip here, hands tucked behind his head not looking like he had a care in the world with his jacket just hanging off his shoulder. I looked back down at the ground in front of us, it took a lot of my willpower to not just up and run. It was too quiet still, no one would say anything. 

We continued to wander aimlessly down the street when suddenly without warning I felt a hand on my wrist. I looked down to see the Atlean’s arm outstretched to not only my wrist but the older man’s as well. When we all halted in place I watched his brows furrow in concentration, he lifted his sunglasses to his head as he looked down the street with yet another grin planted on his face. “Hey Roman, ever stopped a moving vehicle? White van, headed this way...moving fast. Looks like a getaway vehicle.” I first looked up to see that Dean was looking down the street, I saw nothing but that was his good eyesight at work again. I then shifted my gaze to see that once again the Lieutenant Colonel had that challenging grin on his face. I was afraid to think what was about to happen, but it seems the infectious charisma of Dean Ambrose struck again. 

I watched with a horrified look on my face as I watched the older man walked into the middle of the street. Never in my life had I seen a man look so confident as the few cars swerved around him. I looked back at Dean who only had his arm crossed still smirking as if he was enjoying all this. All of this, bewildered me as I switched my sight back to Roman. “Any runners are yours, Seth.” he said to me not turning his gray orbs away from the street. Slowly I watched him take a poised stance, legs spread apart and his body hunched slightly forward. I watched his muscles tighten as he brought a fist into the air above him. “Here it comes!” Dean shouted at him looking excited in anticipation. I wondered if this was going to work. Roman’s experimentations made him strong, but his true strength hadn’t been tested yet, and I certainly didn’t think this was a proper way to do it. Yet, I felt myself unable to look away...could Roman actually pull this off?

It seemed almost instant, the speeding white van as Dean said came veering by to only to come to a complete halt. My eyes widened in awe as Roman brought his fist down with a loud battle cry onto the front of the van crushing it’s engine and lifting the back end of it slightly off the ground from the sheer impact of the collision. My eyes wandered over to Dean whose jaw was also hung wide open. My brown eyes met with his blue ones as we both looked back at Roman who looked completely unphased. If this wasn’t living proof of the success of Project: Taladen then I don’t know what was. Even some of the pedestrians stopped to see the destruction of the white van. I watched when Dean tried to step into the street when I grabbed his arm trying to pull him back to me, “Shouldn’t we leave the rest of this to the authorities?” As much as I’d rather not get in trouble and land myself back onto the execution list, there was already no going back, but that didn’t stop me from trying to be reasonable.

“They’re coming.” responded the brunette, calmly. I didn’t understand how he could remain calm through all this. Were we just inebriated off the energy around us? Maybe we were both still in shock from Roman’s actions. Either way this was dangerous...very dangerous and yet more and more I felt like I was being pulled in by an invisible cord drawing me to the center of the chaos. I could feel something coming over me, all reasonable thoughts were beginning to make it’s way from my mind. I was raised on this kind of danger, I lived for this kind of danger. This was why I continued my work after leaving Wyndmere. This rush, this momentum, everything was starting to blur together. I looked up at Dean who pulled me forward with a yank of his arm. “We’ll leave them a present.” I couldn’t help it, even I found myself grinning now.

**~~~***~~~**

Dean and I approached the back of the van as Roman lifted his arm from the demolished engine. He shook his hand for a moment hissing in pain but to my surprise he was perfectly fine the only damage he sustained were a few bloody knuckles, which in of itself was another feat. Maybe the scientists knew exactly what they were doing. I watched the older man move from the engine and with one arm completely ripped the driver door off the van tossing it haphazardly behind him. The driver looked beyond terrified, his body language alone said that, and who wouldn’t be. He completely smashed the engine of a van with only his fist! I returned my attentions to Dean who had a hand on one handle of the van and I grabbed the other together we threw open the doors.

Never had I seen such ferocity in someone. Dean immediately lept in tackling one of the masked men down to the floor of the van. The way he threw those wild punches and the sound of the impact each one made, it was hard to imagine this young man was a medic. The other masked man turned his sights on me, not wanting to suffer an end of Ambrose’s beating he did the same and left for me tackling me to the ground. Rather than choosing to fight he chose to run, ducking into a nearby alley. After everything I felt compelled to run after him, feeling the rush again. “Go! Go!” I heard Dean shouting at me, with no more hesitation I chose to run after the one that got away while he and Roman dealt with the other two. 

This was one definitely agile, I couldn’t deny that. As I chased him down the alley he tried to shove anything into my way, trash cans, loose pieces of wood. This wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to already, with quick finesse and agility I was able to duck and weave through everything he threw in my way. At the end of the alley I saw a small chain link fence, I thought for sure this would be the end of the chase but I was quick to get my hopes up. He reached up and with little effort he lifted himself up and hoisted himself over the chain link fence, I wasn’t about to give up. I looked up to see a loose wire from what looked like to be a broken clothesline but that was all I needed. Using one of those pieces of wood he threw in my way as a ramp, I quickened my pace reaching the top of a closed dumpster. All in one quick motion I lept off the dumpster to the clothesline and using my own forward momentum I swung quickly releasing to get myself over the fence. He was still in sight so there was a chance he was getting tired. He looked once back at me and reached up once more to a hanging ladder that lead up into a series of metal steps with a nearly rusted metal platform between each flight. 

The chase led to the rooftops of the large buildings where he was easily able to leap over the a small gap in between the buildings. I needed to be able to cut him off, there was no doubt in my mind he probably knew this area better than me and knew where all the shortcuts were. With no real means of communication with Dean or Roman on me I couldn’t risk getting lost in this vast city. I needed to bring this to an end now. I thought back to how I used to pray on my victims and then it hit me. I was taught the art of stealth, I made my life off of not being seen. I needed to disappear...I needed him to think I had given up the chase. I watched him leap to another building, I tried a different route, instead of leaping to the next roof I jumped down onto a nearby balcony and slowed down some to let him get ahead, I focused on trying to disappear. If there was ever a moment where I felt like disappearing now was a time. I focused everyone on trying to get control of that power, I shut my eyes for a moment and when I reopened them I looked down at my hands. I was invisible! I wasn’t sure how long I could keep this but I wasn’t going deny my blessings. 

I sped up once again leaping to the next balcony, and reached up to lift myself onto the a window sill and back up to the rooftops. To my luck he had stopped to catch his breath which was the moment I needed. I wouldn’t give him the time to recover, he couldn’t see me, I lept forward to land a tightened fist to his jaw. It didn’t occur to me that I had caught him off guard but he was still able to grab my shirt, I guess I wasn’t completely invisible, that was another concern for Roman later. I needed to subdue this man, which wasn’t all that hard. He tried to fight back but there was no way a common thief could stand against a trained specialist. With every punch he tried to land I easily blocked landing an elbow in his face breaking his nose and quick low kick to his shins sent him to one knee. I ended our little scuffle with a knee right into his temple knocking him unconscious instantly. I looked down at his body observing how still it was. No matter how long he was out, he’d feel the vicious blow I dealt to him today. I leaned down picking up the body and hauling it over my shoulder.

Carefully I made my way down more sets of stairs of the building being careful not to drop the man on the way down. It took me a moment to regain my bearings but I managed to retrace my steps back to the original scene of the van. I dropped the unconscious man in front of Dean and Roman who were just sitting in the back of the open van watching over the other two criminals whose ski masks had been removed and looked terrified beyond reasoning. One was bruised up no doubt due to Dean’s excessive force. The two of them looked up at me with grins plastered on their face and I couldn’t help but return one of my own.

I looked around seeing all the mixed emotions in the pedestrians. Most looked bewildered while others looked thrilled. “Ambrose, Rollins, good work.” spoke up Roman, “Turns out these guys robbed the bank up ahead.” he explained. I didn’t even notice the stacks of money in the back of the van, the detail wasn’t important at the time. Law enforcement was here, I felt there was no more reasons to stay here.

My mind was focused on the civilians that were surrounding us, and once more I could feel my mind at work again. I turned my attentions to the older man once more, “Roman.” I spoke up catching his attention as I saw stormy colored eyes focused on me. “These people saw everything, they know who we are...we just exposed the experiment. What is gonna happen?” 

“I honestly don’t know Seth. We can only protect the people…” he paused standing up from brushing off some dust from his pants. “But we can’t tell them how they should feel. Actions speak louder than words, and it’s up to them to process what they just witnessed. Look around,” he paused once more to point out the people, Dean looked around as well listening to what the older man had to say. “Some are scared, some are confused, but some…” he pointed to a specific woman in the crowd who looked absolutely thrilled. 

“They’re amazing!” she screamed. 

“But some are grateful, and that’s what might make this all worthwhile.” 

Dean and I looked at one another having some of our own thinking to do. I didn’t feel like I did anything special, just a man who thought it was the right thing to do the time. I’m an ex-assassin, I killed my king and faced the heavy repercussions that followed. I’m only here because I was afraid to die, but that made me think where did that leave Dean? He came to escape the horrors of his past to rekindle his life. In this moment I felt everything catching up with me. I needed these two, to help me find what I need to do. I was still unsure, I had my doubts, but only about myself. But I too was grateful, to have them by my side to help me find that center. 

Fatigue and nausea found it’s way back into me. I felt myself getting light headed and my legs crumbling out from underneath me. I could have sworn I felt myself fainting from the distress of everything. The last thing I remember was being scooped up into Roman’s arms and Dean mentioning that I we needed someplace cooler to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How'd you like all their powers being on full display for the first time?


	5. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silence isn't always golden

I groaned as I peeled my eyes opened, I was exhausted. The last thing I remembered was passing out in the middle of the street in the middle of the wreckage we caused. We caused it. Now there was something else I had to carry with me, we exposed Project: Taladen, but a small glimmer of reason rang in my head in the form of Roman’s words: 

_“Actions speak louder than words, and it’s up to them to process what they just witnessed.”_

I only saw white at first as my vision slowly came into view. When everything had come into focus I realized I was back in my dorm at the base. Slowly, I sat up to see that Roman and Dean had been waiting there the entire time. I saw older man sitting in the chair of my desk while the Atlean sat at the foot of my bed. I attracted both their attentions as I shifted to a sitting position with my back against the dark colored wooden headboard. There was that awkward silence again, and for how often it hung around it was almost painful, I just couldn’t take it anymore, “Why must there always be silence between us!?” I shouted, not sure why I did I felt like it had to be said. The two of them just stared at me with widened eyes. The one who is supposed to live off silence is now the one to break it, unbelievable. “I get it, we’re not used to being around each other, but that needs to stop. If this team is going to work we need to be able to accept one another.” I looked down at my hands realizing just what exactly I had said. I should be the last person to speak on that matter. I hated this feeling being both flustered and frustrated. 

I looked up to see a reassuring hand on my leg and noticed the medic being his usual charming self. It’s still hard to imagine that just a few hours ago he was viciously beating an embezzler to the point where you could hardly recognize his face. The mind of Dean Ambrose was a difficult thing, but it made me glad he was on our side. With how quickly his personality can switch I’d imagine most mistake him for being a lunatic. Then there was the case of Roman Reigns, the man definitely had his heart in the right place. There was a lot of military habits he had and had to work a bit on his communication skills but you could tell he was at least trying even if sometimes his mind worked faster than he did. These were the impressions I got after one week.

There was a knock at the door that caught all of our attentions before the other two men could respond. Roman stood from his spot to open the door to see that it was Cassandra, the lovely nurse from research facility, had a small cart with some plates of food with covers. She seemed to be having a good day with the way her smile was beaming. “I didn’t see any of you in the last hour so I figured you were all here. Since Seth was being recommended for rest I brought some lunch up for him to save him from the long trip downstairs but then I thought it’d be unfair if I left you and Dean out,” she told Roman smile still holding strong. How did she find time to spoil us while helping the Lieutenant Colonel with the research facility? She looked over his shoulder to Dean and I giving us a wave, we both gave her a wave back in unison. “Anyway I don’t want to take up too much time, get some rest Seth!” he said happily pushing the cart of food into the room and pulled the door closed. 

Well now we were all sitting in my dorm with three plates of food. I swung my legs over the side of my bed slowly standing up and stretching my arms above my head. I wasn’t gonna let the silence linger any longer. I grabbed one of the plates covers removing it from the plate eyeing the food. I was expecting the normal food they served us at the facility but here I was in shock. This meal looked absolutely delectable, and looked like it had been made recently fresh from the steam that was still emanating from it. Roman and Dean looked in shock and lifted the covers to the other two meals. Three identical meals, of a fresh cooked steak topped with a savory mushroom sauce, with a side of steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes. I was pretty sure that Cassandra had made this, and she made it just for us. I think I understood what she was trying to do too. We were all in one place, Roman wasn’t working, Dean wasn’t wandering, we were all here in my dorm trying to bond. She was just trying to shove us together with a nice meal, to have something nice to talk over as we got to know one another. Had she noticed the silence between us as well? I certainly hoped that her plan would work.

**~~~***~~~**

We spread ourselves through the dorm each with a meal, Roman took back the desk as Dean just decided his own lap was good enough never moving from his spot from my bed, I decided to use my nightstand as a small table. The meal seemed to lighten spirits as the three of us just chatted up a storm over light topics, I tried to make it my goal to keep away from heavy subjects like the experiments and even where they came from. I’m sure that’d all come later, this was a time for relaxing and enjoying one another’s company. The three of us laughed at Roman’s ludicrous stories of him while going through basic, from the way he smiled when he talked it sounded like he had a great time. I couldn’t help but notice that Brigadier General Lorken had come up a lot in his stories and it sounded like they were close. Made me almost envious to wish I had someone I could be that close to. However, the Lorken from his stories and the one we met earlier that day sounded like two different people. Something had changed in the time he and the Lieutenant Colonel had been apart.

My thoughts floated around but I remained quite attentive to Roman and Dean before I knew it I had finished my meal in a short amount of time, while the other two men were still working on theirs. I hadn’t realized how hungry I actually was but the exquisite flavors of the meal combined with the relaxed atmosphere of the room gave me the ability to let go of my darker thoughts, but I know they’d come back eventually...they always did. It took me a moment to realize the Atlean had his gaze on me still looking a bit concerned. My own brown orbs met with his as we had a bit of an awkward stare down, as I watched his eyes look me up and down almost like he was inspecting me.

“I think I know why you fainted, especially after how quickly you polished off that meal.” I watched him place a hand on his chin looking like he was trying to word what he was about to say carefully. “I think it might be an after effect from the experiments. By using our abilities dramatically speeds up our metabolisms, but where Roman and I can’t turn ours off our bodies adjusted to the accelerated rate where as yours is like a switch so your body has not had as much time to keep up, on top of that you hadn’t eaten much since breakfast that morning not to mention chasing that scum probably didn’t help that at all. I think once you get you get that invisibility under control, you’ll probably find yourself not getting as light headed. Nothing too much to worry about, but our food consumption will definitely be a hinder on our wallets and don’t get me started on staying in shape on top of this.” I turned to Roman whose eyes were widened by the medic’s speech. Just where does he keep all of this information? I felt like this was something that was gonna take some time getting used to, who knows how often he’d go off on these tangents, but I did feel better that he could explain what happened even if I didn’t fully understand it. I was educated, but not on the human body, and to be honest it fascinated just how much he knew when he claimed he didn’t have much schooling. I thought Roman was something, but the quirks of Dean Ambrose made the comparison not even a competition, and the best part was he seemed to revel in this. 

After an hour of finishing our meals it was getting later into the afternoon approaching the evening. Roman collected the plates and utensils and volunteered to bring them back down to kitchen since he was headed out to the research facility anyway, once again it was just Dean and I left in my dorm. Once again silence hung around but I wasn’t gonna let all the progress we made go to waste. On wobbly legs I walked up to him as he sat at my desk just drumming away at it with his fingers leg bouncing once more. He looked at me with curious blue orbs, he knew I was still a bit weak but that didn’t stop me from trying to make peace with the older man. I stuck my hand out to him put on my best smile, “Thanks, for everything. I’m confident that Roman and I are in good hands with you.” 

He took my hand in his and shook it gently, “It’s not much, I’m just doing what I think is right. My mentor would want it this way or he’d have never let me at his research journals or pulled all the strings in the world to let me have access to the Library of Atlas.” He released my hand looking down at his own hands clasped. There was that nervous twitch within him again, it was a constant reminder that although he was an open book on all things medical, he was as human as they came and had demons all his own, it was yet another similarity between him and I. He quickly stood up balling up his fists in his hair, “I should go.” he said quickly. Had I said something I shouldn’t? Did I overstep my boundries? 

He reached for the doorknob turning the handle before I reached over and grabbed his arm, “Look Dean, I know it isn’t much but especially after everything you’ve done for me...if you need someone to talk to. I’m there. I want us to be comfortable talking to one another without Roman having to be the moderator. We’re teammates now,” I told him calmly. Without much to else to say I carefully released his arm and let him leave my dorm. I had spoken my piece, it was just getting the Atlean to open up some. His mind seemed to always be running, never stopping, they were usually signs of a man of conviction. I thought that if the older man would let us in some he wouldn’t have all his thoughts in a jumbled heap, I hoped that offering an ear would at least lift some of that weight off his shoulders. 

I sat back down on my bed with a heavy sigh. It was absolutely frustrating that I couldn’t even put a chip in that wall Dean had put around himself, even Roman seemed to have his own dealings. I felt like I was left out and that I missed a huge chunk of time from not having grown up within the Alliance nor ever having dealings with them up until the last few years. I reached over to my side table picking up the journal of Tyler Black once more. I began to flip through it’s pages again thinking about the day he killed his king.

**~~~***~~~**

The next morning I woke up to the sound of knocking on my door. It was gentle at first, so I thought I was dreaming. Then the knocking became louder and finally after one more set of knocks and some yelling jolted me out of slumber. Why did Roman have to yell? I looked over to the side table looking out my window seeing a bright glow of the morning dimmed from hitting the dark curtain. It couldn’t have been too early if the sun was shining that brightly already. “I’m coming!” I shouted through my grogginess. I think he had heard me considering he had stopped pounding on my door. I wasn’t the biggest fan of morning especially being woken up to such savage sounds and the older man’s ear blistering shouting that could probably kill a bear. Whatever it was it sounded urgent, so I hastily opened the door to greet him.

I met with very concerned gray orbs which told me immediately something was wrong. I could tell right away something terrible happened. “Dean was found this morning unconscious and hardly breathing in the shooting range. He’s currently in the infirmary. He’s fine, but he’s not woken up yet. We probably won’t know the cause until he wakes up.” That was something I didn’t need to wake up to. The Atlean native seemed just perfectly fine last night, what happened in the shooting range? I started to tremble just thinking about what could have happened to Dean after he left my dorm, and who knows how long he had been unconscious before he was found. I was once more feeling overwhelmed, but this time by worry and concern. I didn’t want this incident halt the progress I was making to get to know the Atlean. 

“Let's go see him,” were the only words that came out of my mouth. My mind was wrapped with worry, my only focus was wanting to know if Dean was okay. Hearing this I felt like a piece of me was about to slip out of my fingers. The feeling I had deep down in my gut was new and confusing. That wasn’t just a friend in that infirmary, it was someone else entirely. Never had I ever felt my heart sink so low and have concern for someone in my entire life, I was trained to take lives not worry about them. The man houled up in the infirmry was a brother. A middle brother who cared about us, who shared his knowledge of medicine to make sure we were okay. This was the least we could do for him, to stay by his side until he woke up. I ducked back into my dorm quickly changing into the first pair of shorts I saw and threw my hair up into a messy bun. 

I had Roman lead the way back to the research building but through a different door that lead into a completely new wing of the building I’d never seen before. For different the walls were alone as well as the clean scent it was hard to believe that this was apart of the research facility. It looked more like a hospital with it’s cream colored wall paper and freshly polished white tile flooring. This entire military base was just on surprise after another. Upon entering we were quickly approached by Cassandra, who had a clipboard in hand rapidly reading what was on there. From what it sounded like, he his body reacted violently due to still an unknown cause, but it was bad enough that he had to be hooked machines to help steady his breathing according to her. 

I said nothing remaining quiet as to not distract Roman as she gave him the entire update on Dean’s condition. She led us down a few more halls before leading us into a small room before taking her leave. The sight was horrific and ironic to say the least. The normally energetic Dean Ambrose was now bedridden, by an unknown cause. The only sounds that filled the room was the beeping of the heart monitor, and his heavy breathing with the assistance of the respiratory machine. The amount of wires and tubes hooked into him looked absolutely devastating. Perhaps this is what Roman meant when he told me that Dean needed further observation. The most horrific sight was the blood coming out his ears. It had been exactly like that first time I saw him in my cell, barely conscious. I looked over to Roman who had just about the same reaction as I was having. Gray eyes full of worry, also regret. I felt his arm wrap around my shoulder and he lead me into the room some more. I didn’t want to get closer but my feet were moving against me. 

I took a seat in a chair next to the bed as Roman paced back and forth in the room. Dean hadn’t moved at all since we gotten in there, and we had to have been in this room for at least an hour now. My mind focused on his ears, why did he have blood coming from them again? Knowing nothing about the experiments that he went through it was hard for me to wrap my mind around what exactly went wrong in the shooting range. I looked back at Roman who kept pacing to a point where I thought he was about to wear a path in the floor. Who knows what he was thinking. With the way his brows furrowed and the twitching in his muscles it couldn’t have been anything good. I looked down at my own hands realizing I needed to do something, anything to calm myself and the older man. From all accounts it sounded like the Atlean was going to be okay, but to get that into Roman’s head seemed like it was be a task in of itself. 

I took a deep breath and reached out brushing fingertips against the back of Dean’s hand. It was bone chilling just how still the hand remained. I felt compelled, I needed to comfort him in some way. Being overpowered with a flurry of emotions right now I slowly placed my palm over the back of that hand and gently wrapped my fingers around still keeping my breathing at a steady pace. The last thing I needed was to faint again or turn invisible. My focus was keeping both men calm and comforted. Taking another deep breath, I began to speak softly leaning my head close. “You need to wake up Dean. Roman and I need you to complete our team. If it wasn’t for your hearing and your sight we’d have never stopped those thieves which goes to show that we’re incomplete without you.” I sighed hoping that the Atlean had heard me. I felt that gentle hand on my shoulder again. I looked up meeting stormy colored orbs beating down on me. We both went back to staring at Dean who remained still, never had I felt so helpless before, and never had I seen someone I cared about look so helpless at the same time.

Yet another couple hours had passed and Dean had yet to move. Roman had finally stopped pacing to being slumped in a chair across the room. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his thighs and his chin rested in his hands. He looked just as nervous as I was, the look on his face said that he too was hoping that Dean would wake up soon. I hadn’t released the older man’s hand yet, still clenching it tightly. Finally the man stirred in his sleep, he groaned as I felt the twitch in his hand. Both Roman and I snapped our gaze to him as he reached up to pull the mask off his face. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.” he said throat obviously sounding dry. It was nice to know that he still kept his brusque mannerisms after being unconscious for several hours. “I feel like I’m back at the research facility with the way my head is pounding.” he explained. 

I sat back in the chair releasing his hand still worried about why he had blood pouring from his ears. “What happened?” I asked him. I couldn’t help myself but ask I needed to know what had put him in this state in the first place. 

He leaned his head back into his pillow while pushing his blanket down to his waist. “I couldn’t sleep last night so I snuck into the firing range to blow off some steam.” I looked at Roman for a moment wondering just what kind of reaction he’d have about Dean sneaking into the firing range but he didn’t look at all surprised. I felt like this was going to be a common theme for Dean as well, getting into places he shouldn’t be. “I ended up collapsing from shock due to the sound. Turns out my hearing is both a blessing and a curse, not to mention the echo didn’t help at all. It was a small seizure nothing to worry about, but how am I supposed to survive the military if I can’t stand the sound of a firearm?” 

Both our attentions turned to Roman who stood up with a smile on his face. “Actually, Special Ops uses non-lethal for the most part. We’re infiltrators, behind the enemy lines we don’t want weapons that’ll draw attention.” I raised my eyebrow at Roman as he placed a hand on his chin in thought. Just what was he planning? “I gotta make a few phone calls. I just got an idea.” He quick wave before exiting the room looking almost like an excited child. 

Confused by the events I turned to Dean who was already pulling all the tubes off him. I watched him as he swung his legs over the bed already full of energy. Where does he store it all, and how was he already feeling like nothing had happened? There was still so much that didn’t make sense especially about Roman and Dean and to be honest I was envious. I wish I could just speak my mind whenever I wanted without worrying about what others thoughts, and overall not having a care in the world. To have the ability to just cut loose like they did was something I wish I had in me, but instead I always worried trying to control my thoughts let alone the words I spoke, a constant internal battle between running and fighting. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” 

He looked at me and grinned, before looking around the room. After a few minutes of silence and somewhat tearing apart the room he found his leather jacket draped over a chair in the corner. “Yeah, and as a trained medic I’m recommending myself for rest someplace else that’s not here. Hospitals aren’t my thing,” I stared at his blue orbs blankly for a moment. This was something completely new for me to even process, a doctor that was afraid of hospitals? At least that’s the impression I got from the Atlean. The residents of the Celestial Providence didn’t cease to surprise me, and once again reminding me that even through the years I spent in Astros, there was still so much I didn’t know.

**~~~***~~~**

With good fortune Dean and I managed to sneak out of the medical wing with no struggle, but it wasn’t without putting my invisibility to the test once more. Once we were out of there I could already feel myself light headed once again, but the older man had no problems helping me stay upright. However the feeling in my body wasn’t like the last time, the more I forced myself to endure the disgust that wracked my body every time I skin went intangible the more I felt myself getting less groggy. Perhaps once I got over the befuddle over this whole experiment I could probably get it better under control, and I knew in the back of my mind that the only way to do that was to keep doing it. My mind needed to wrap itself around the thought that this was my life now.

Once I found my balance the two of us didn’t return to the dorm right away. We found ourselves making our way to the track finding comfort in the grass to just sit down a relax. It was still early in the afternoon, we both agreed that it was too early to return to the dorm. We sat down looking a little confused staring at the grass some. “So…” I finally heard him speak. “How long have you been in Astros?” 

I looked up at him in confusion, it was new for me for him to be the one breaking the silence. My words from earlier must have sunk in, and it made my heart jump just a little bit. I took a moment to think about his question though. Was he just asking to start up any kind of conversation or was he actually trying to take the time to get to know me. Either way, it felt like there was a bit of weight being lifted from my shoulders that he actually wanted to hear my story. I was a bit terrified but if there was anyone who might understand my struggle it would be him. “It’s been a little over two years,” I answered him honestly. “I fled from my home at the age of eighteen, for a few years I stayed in a small town north of Astros called Cygnus. The people welcomed me, and it confused me at first but then I realized that many people from my country fled there considering how close it is to Wyndmere. I hadn’t been there long before word reached that the king was dead.” I gave a shaky sigh, it felt weird that I was tell him everything that happened before I got to Astros, even still he was the first person to even ask let alone listen. 

Blue eyes continued to stare deeply at me as he listened intently. He’d probably never met anyone from outside of the Alliance so for all I knew it could have been fascinating. He looked interested at what I had to say and I was grateful for it. “How did your king die?” he asked me curiously. 

I gave a deep breath once again, could he handle it? I was afraid to tell him the truth, it was a large pill to swallow. How could someone even bare the thought of being friends with a murderer? This was going to take us back I know it would. We were polar opposites, a man who took lives and a man who saved them. My body felt numb to the sudden thought of losing my growing friendship with Dean because of my past. Once again that comforting hand found it’s way to my shoulder. I was getting used to the touch and once it was there my entire being melted to it. One last shaking breath I took, it was just like at the city. We were in this deep, there was no going back. “I killed him.” I reached up covering my face with my hands not wanting to face the other man’s reaction. 

But that hand never left my shoulder. I felt Dean’s hand move down my back rubbing it up and down over my spine trying to comfort me further. He knew that talking about the moment had been stressing me out. He probably knew talking about it wasn’t exactly ideal for me, but it had to be said. He deserved to know, there should be no secrets between teammates. I expected him to up and leave me, to put distance between the two of us, but he had to know what I was going through. To have that darkness that blurs your past. “Sometimes we gotta do things that we’re not proud of. I’m sure you had your reasons on why you killed your king,” I looked up at him as he spoke, removing my hands from my face. “But remember this, Tyler Black was the one that killed him,” he paused as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “But not Seth Rollins.”

They say that sometimes you never know you need something in your life until you have it, and now I understand that feeling.


	6. Redemption and Freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What do Dean and Seth fight for? Roman seems to have an idea.

Two days had passed since the incident in the medical wing and my chat with Dean. It seemed that no one really worried about Dean just up and leaving the medical wing the same day he was admitted. I couldn’t help but remembering every word that had sunk in from the talk I had with the Atlean. It was shocking to see just how much access he allowed us after only knowing us for two weeks. It seemed like he really did trust us, so as long as we stayed out of everyone’s way. I had no problems staying under the radar, considering that it is my speciality and they literally imbedded that ability into my skin but Dean. He had no problem speaking his mind and I was sure that his outspoken personality was eventually going to land him into some deep trouble. 

I had just finished my run and was busy doing some of my post exercise stretches when Roman came into view. He too looked like he just finished working out seeing the front of his shirt drenched in sweat and the beads collected on his forehead. I was used to his methods of communication at this point where he only approached me when he needed something. He seemed like the type to leave us to our own devices unless it was important. I didn’t mind it, it meant he didn’t pry into people’s lives probably how he earned the respect of people. That could probably explain why Dean and I had so much freedom in this place. I’d imagine it was because we weren’t soldiers, we didn’t spend years on top of years of training to handle orders. He was letting us get used to this lifestyle at our own leisure to not burden us with everything else that was going on in this facility, it was probably a service to himself as well since he was an overseer. 

“Could you meet me at the shooting range at your earliest convenience? I want to see how well you do with firearms, and then I’ve got a present for Dean.” I wasn’t expecting that and that made me a little nervous. I’d never shot a gun before, and was never trained with them. My father only really taught me hand to hand combat and close ranged weapons. The only ranged weapon I’d ever shot in my life was a bow, I guess this was another difference I had to get used now that I was apart of the Alliance. 

I returned to my dorm for a quick shower and before crossing the grounds to the west side of the base where the shooting range as well as the other military facilities lied, the opposite end of the research center. I came to the entrance of the shooting range with the guard eyeing me up and down. We had a silent stand off before he stepped to the side letting me in. I felt his unwavering gaze never leave as I slowly walked past him, “I don’t trust you or any of those lab rats, makes me glad I’m on the opposite end of the base.” I looked down ashamed, I didn’t realize that the soldiers of the ones who set up the project had their doubts. That didn’t make me feel any better about this, his words alone felt like I had just taken three steps back from all the progress and trust I had built up with Roman. I didn’t bring myself to say anything, I know it wouldn’t end pretty...probably would have landed me back in a cell at the research center. I continued to walk past him not bothering to spare him a glance picking up the pace.

**~~~**~~~**

I walked down a short hall way before coming to a large open spaced room. I looked around seeing no one else but just Roman standing there arms crossed looking quite content. I wondered if he had a similar conversation with the guard earlier, probably not. He’d probably didn’t want to chance it with a higher up of the military but an outsider? At least the grunt knew how to pick his battles. I shoved those thoughts aside as I eyed the two gray colored crates next to him both with the Alliance emblem on top. The first crate was a smaller one, long and stretched out but narrow, while the other was a bit taller more cube shaped, looked heavier too. I approached the older man very curious about the crates. As I walked closer I watched Roman open the larger crate pulling out two brilliantly polished steel colored handguns setting them gently on the counter of the booth we were in. I watched him pull out what looked to be safety equipment for handling them.

I carefully watched the raven haired man as he put on the necessary equipment for handling the weapons. I carefully watched him breath held, I’d never fired a gun let alone seen or heard one shot. My work didn’t take me to places where one was necessary and if it did, then they were never fired at me. I always got the jump first taking time to always disarm. “Special ops uses firearms as a last resort, if we can perform without firefight breaking out we use that method first. But it’s not always foolproof,” he said as I watched him load a cartridge of ammo in one of the guns. “There are times where we have been forced into a gunfight with no way out. I want you two to be able to defend yourselves in case.” He looked at me with a smirk on his face. While keeping his gaze on me he pulled the trigger on the weapon shooting the targeting dummy at the end of the range. 

Surprised by the ear shattering noise even through the ear muffs still sent shock through my body. This was going to take some time getting used to. I looked up at the dummy equally surprised as I saw he hit the dummy right spot on. He didn’t even look like he aimed at it, he had his gaze focused on me, but sure enough he hit the targeting dummy bullseye in the center. Perhaps this was why the Lieutenant Colonel had so much praise from his superiors and peers. He was incredible! “And by the end of the day, you’re going to be doing the same. Dean’s going to be here a little later, I didn’t want him to end up in the hospital again as we got some of your training out of the way.” he said still smiling. I felt this was going to be a long training session. 

Sure enough the first shot I completely missed, and I shot a glare up at the snicker the older man gave me. I was nervous and my I could feel my body shaking. My mind was still stuck on how Dean explained that his body was in shock from the noise. This was completely out of my comfort zone. Hand to hand combat in a life or death situation, no problem...firing a gun? What a crazy world we lived in. I felt his hand on my shoulder and then one on my arm, slowly adjusting my stance to a better position. “You need to calm down, you’re acting like you’re the one who's got the gun pointed at them. Stop being so nervous all the time,” he said as he released my arm and shoulder after adjusting my position. Another shot, this time I was able to hit the target but far from the center. I felt so embarrassed. Years spent training to be one of the highest classes of assassins and here I was being made to look like a neophyte. 

It became a repeating process as after every shot he’d continuously gave me tips on what I was doing wrong, but with each shot fired and every piece of advice I could see my shots getting better and better. I stopped shaking focusing on the target, I beginning to become comfortable with the gun and it baffled me just how quickly I was picking up on this. I steadied myself, and with another shot I finally was able to hit the bullseye of the target. I only heard a whistle of approval from the older man behind me. “I think that’s enough for now, Dean will be here soon.” he said with a grin planted on his face. It was obvious that he had complete approval of the progress I had made. “From here on you’re on your own, but you can keep the guns. I had those specially delivered here for you..” What? Did I hear that correctly? I felt my heart sink into my chest. He had have have planned this, there’s no way in two days he could have had these ready. I looked up at him as he stood there with a bright smile on his face. 

I looked down at the other gun he had pulled almost forgetting that it was there and behold on the side was my name in beautifully crafted cursive letters. I looked to inspect the other that I had in my hand and in the same letter was the word: Redemption. Without even saying it he was sending me a message. Lieutenant Colonel Roman Reigns believed in me. That I could do something more than what I believed I was capable of, it also meant he believed I was capable of escaping shadows of my past. I was speechless, I couldn’t even make out even a simple thank you. My heart panged against my chest as many emotions rallied in my mind.

“Am I interrupting something?” called a voice from the side. By now I had that gruff voice memorized. We both turned to Dean who was standing there smiling giving us a small wave. “So, why did you want me back here Roman after the incident from two days ago?” He brought up a good point, but it had slipped my mind. It was obvious that because of his ultra sensitive hearing it’d probably be impossible for him to wield any firearm. So why did he bring Dean here, sure it wasn’t to train him with the same weapons was it? 

Roman’s movements caught my attentions again as he picked up the small gray crate placing down in front of him, and giving it a slight kick so that it slid to Dean’s feet. I watched the middle man kneel down and unlock the hatches on the crate. Once it was opened blue eyes widened in absolute disbelief. I watched as the Atlean reached into the box and pulled out a weapon that almost matched him in height. It was a long steel bound rod with several lines of blue light running through it. The ends were a little larger colored black with a line going through them looking like they opened up. The middle was a thinner than the rest of the weapon wrapped with dark leather, lastly there was a thick black wire that was leaned against the back of it. I watched as Dean passed the weapon back and forth between his hands, clearly also taken back by the ordeal. This must have been the gift for the Dean that the oldest had spoken of. 

“It’s a mark two version of a prototype weapon, they’ve been developing it strictly for Special Ops. I figured now would be a good time as any to test it out,” Explained Roman as blue eyes inspected the weapon in his hand. Just how many strings did Roman pull to get an experimental weapon out here in such a short amount of time? Just how much of his influence was he abusing to get such objects here? “Since it’s in your hands now, the engineers who developed the weapon decided to call it ‘Ceadeus’. That weapon is yours from now on, Ambrose.” 

Dean shot Roman a very bewildered look. Who knows what he was thinking or how he even felt. The brunette was very good at covering his emotions with the exception of excitement as his look dramatically changed. He looked the weapon up and down and begun to spinning it around in both hand looking like he was getting a feel for the weapon. “I don’t know what to say big guy…” he started obviously speaking to Roman. “You’re doing a lot for two people whose barely begun their careers as soldiers, and may I remind you that you’ve only known us for two weeks.” He looked over to me eyes shifting past me as he was eyeing my two hand guns. He had that charismatic grin on his face turning back to Roman. He looked back up eyeing the rod looking shocked once more. I hadn’t noticed it before but it too had engravings in the same cursive letters above and below the middle handle. The first was his name as well, and the second was the word Freedom. What was Roman insinuating with that word? “Freedom…” he said the would out loud clearly trying to think of the meaning behind it. “I like it, and you clearly like us.” 

Roman nodded with approval on his face, “Good. Because your training starts now.” He gently took a hold of the leather handle slowly taking it from Dean’s hand. He spun it around like he had used something like it before. Having not ever seen either man’s combat skills I’m not sure what they were capable of. He finally stopped spinning it around taking a good grip of the weapon at the handle. He shoved the arm that had the weapon gripped forward. I once more looked surprised as the weapon held a new shape. 

The black ends had opened up suddenly and the whole weapon was curved and the black wire had stretched out between the ends. It went from being a battle staff to now being a bow. He handed the weapon back to Dean who looked confused as he went back to inspecting the weapon with an excited look on his face Roman began to dig back into that large crate pulling out what looked to be a quiver full black arrows. I sat back carefully as Roman handed him a long leather glove, looked traditional for archers if I recalled from what I used to see back home. 

Carefully the Atlean picked up one of the arrows after putting the glove on. He focused on the target, he looked a lot calmer than I did, almost like he had done this before. He raised the weapon as the blue lights turned red watching him twirl the arrow in his hand. He looked back at Roman and I grinning, “I’m just messing around, I actually have no idea what I’m doing.” he said, placidly lowering both objects. 

I could have sworn my face went pale, as Dean Ambrose strikes again. Well at least he was honest before embarrassing himself. Shrugging for once I wanted to be the one that showed off. My father taught me that archery was a must to learn in case of distanced targets, and that nothing could be out of my reach. I stepped up holding my hand out to Dean. I think he understood what I was trying to do with the way he handed me the glove and the weapon. After putting on the protective glove I held the bow up carefully placing the arrow to rest on my thumb. I eyed the target carefully slowly drawing the string back. I could have sworn I both heard their breaths held as I stood there stiff as a board barely a muscle twitching. Finally I released the string sending the arrow hurling towards the target, and right on point in the dead center. I lowed the weapon looking at the two of them with a triumphant grin, finally something I had on the two of them. With all three of us wearing that challenging smile, it was time to begin Dean’s training.

The first and the hardest part was getting his stance correct. Never have I dealt with the task of getting someone so fidgety to stand still. It eventually came to a point where I had to hold Dean’s arms in place myself before he finally found his footing. Once he had his stance correct it was getting him to shoot the weapon. We first started on getting him used to pulling the string back, this was something new for him entirely. He seemed to have problems finding the strength to pull it back, fumbling around with it and snapping it back into his arm multiple times. It’d probably littered in cuts and bruises it if it wasn’t for the protective glove.

**~~~**~~~**

It was surprising how fast of a learner the Atlean was, and probably why his medical prowess showed a huge amount of promise. This wasn’t an easy weapon to wield and normally took days sometimes weeks to eventually to be able to shoot an arrow properly, but in just a few hours his ability to learn showed greatly. Did everyone that came from Atlas have this expansive ingenuity? Slowly but surely I watched him start to pick up the rest on his own. I noticed he mimicked a lot of my movements from when I showed off my skill with the weapon. He carefully rested the black arrow in the crook between his thumb and his index finger. He took a deep breath as he finished lining up the arrow with the string drawing both back. I felt myself hold my breath hoping he’d pull this off. He stood still in that same stance for what felt like minutes. After one last elongated exhale he let loose the arrow, frowning at the results.

I watched it sail right past the dummy hitting the back wall and watching it just haphazardly bounce off the wall and roll onto the floor in a corner. “Again.” I heard Roman called from behind us. I knew where the older man was getting at when he quickly called for him to take another shot. He didn’t want Dean’s self-esteem lower just because he missed the first shot, he was getting somewhere. The Atlean made no motion to argue and simply nodded and picked up another arrow shooting it off sailing it off towards the target ending in the same result. I spotted that look of determination in those blue pools, and understood that he wanted to at least be able to hit the target. He huffed picking up another arrow and gave another deep breath. I watched him collect himself as he placidly shift back into the position that we worked for hours for him to get right. He stood still for a moment, and each movement seemed to have minutes in between. Those blue eyes focused on the target once more, and after what seemed like the longest drawn out minute ever he finally let loose the arrow. He grimmed in triumph looking like an excited child. He seemed pretty proud about hitting the target, although he was far from the center, it was still good progress made.

“Keep that up, and we’re going to be the best team the Alliance has ever seen.” Roman said with his smiling in delight. The three of us had to have been there for hours and we made some amazing progress, Dean and I were determined to impress the oldest of our trio and it seemed we made that goal.

**~~~**~~~**

After another hour of Dean practicing it was approaching the late evening. Time seemed to fly as we got more and more comfortable with one another eventually leaving the shooting range in boisterous laughter and smiling from ear to ear. As we left I turned back once more to see that the guards were changing shifts but still he had to roll his eyes. It seemed like nothing could change his mind, and that was just one of those things that we had to accept. It made me think about what was it about Roman that separated him from the rest of the military. It had to be more than just his incredible combat ability. I had to shove those thoughts aside for now and think about what lied ahead.

Dean was the first to give a loud yawn. I had almost forgotten that he was probably still recommended for rest, weather it was from himself or the doctors at the research facility. Although I absolutely enjoyed the company of the Atlean, this may have been my chance to finally talk to the Lieutenant Colonel one on one to get some of my doubts about him out in the open. It’s not that I didn’t trust Roman, there were things I needed to know especially about the Alliance’s military. We said our good nights to Dean as he slung Ceadeus over his shoulder heading back towards the dorm. 

“You want to talk?” said Roman outwardly. Had it been that obvious? I looked down at the ground avoiding his gaze. I needed to collect my words first and there was also my fears of those listening in. I tried to say something but every sound that emitted from me was nothing more than a weak stammer. I felt his hands on my shoulders as I slowly looked up to meet caring cloudy colored orbs staring at me. “Let's talk in my office. It’s safe there.” I nodded slowly, still having a hard time collecting myself. 

We walked across the grounds in complete silence as the night breeze of the desert cast over. I was lost in my thoughts trying to think about how to ask Roman about everything. I’m sure he didn’t say anything as to let me collect myself. First Dean, and now Roman it was interesting to have such understanding teammates, but I was grateful nonetheless. Even if being a team doesn’t work out, I’ll never forget these last two weeks I got to spend with them. They were two men with undeniably beautiful hearts and although they both expressed it differently. I felt so indebted to them, and I realized that in this time I was starting to get out of my shell a little. My own barriers were starting to crumble.

**~~~**~~~**

After crossing the grounds we came to a new building on the very east side of the base. It was the smallest building of the base and didn’t look as reinforced as the rest of the place. The only use this building may have had was just being the offices for those in charge. The building itself had to only been three stories tall, and matched the decor of the medical wing. It had cream colored walls with dark wood colored accents and gold leaf trimmings in the wall. The place was kept neat even down to the relaxing lavender smell. He lead me up two flights of stairs before reaching a wide hall way. There were four doors, two on each side and a plaque of whom each office belonged to.

The first door caught my attention as it held the Brigadier General’s name, reminding me once again that it wasn’t just Roman who had ran this place. I didn’t get a chance to read the other two as Roman’s was the next door. He pulled out a key from his jeans pocket and unlocked the door to his office. He held the door open letting me in first. I looked around seeing everything he had kept. The walls were dark blue with the same gold leaf trimmings. He kept a dark oak wood bookcase near the large window that was nearly as tall as the wall, and it had a decorative dark red curtain.

I approached the bookcase looking at everything that had been placed there.The first shelf looked like a series files and binders with various words written on the side. I tried not to pay attention to any of those, seeing as they looked important and probably top secret. I looked at the second shelf, looked like a collection of various and seemingly valuable items. What had caught my attention the most was the glass casing with what looked to be a handgun in it. It looked very similar to the one that Roman had given me, it was polished to perfection to where I could see my own reflection in it and the stand had it tilted down. There was also an engraving on it, a name in the same cursive lettering. 

_AJ Styles_

Wasn’t that the name of Roman’s mentor? I remember it being a another name that came up a lot in Roman’s stories. I looked to the left of the case noticing a beautiful gold colored square frame with a picture of four men each holding a bright smile. Just by looking at it, they all had to be soldiers with all of them similar looking arctic camouflage tactical gear. At the bottom of the frame looked like there was a date hand etched in there. I wondered if it represented the day the picture that was taken or something else. The picture had Roman in the front kneeling down he held that same smile like when he’s around Dean and I. The man in the center of the group caught my attention the most. Medium length brown hair, and crystal blue eyes, and the way he was smiling it was hard to imagine he was a soldier. But the smile he held was a confident one, and the way he had his arms draped around the shoulders of the other two teammates looked like he had complete trust in them.

“He taught me everything,” Roman said from behind me jolting me out of my thoughts. I looked at him curiously wondering what he had to say. I watched him slowly approach me from behind and point to the date that was etched into the frame. “That day was our very last mission together,” he explained his voice sounding almost like it was trembling. I can’t imagine how harsh the memory was. “We were headed north to the Leviathan Providence, never had I experienced such intense temperatures. Colonel Styles thought it’d be amusing to take a picture together so that we could compare a before and after picture after dealing with the extreme cold. He was a bit of an oddball, but to say he knew what he was doing was an understatement. He seemed to always know what was going on, what to do and what to say.” It was odd for him to suddenly start rambling about his past, and from the way it sounded he wasn’t finished, but I wasn’t gonna ask him to continue if it was that painful of a memory.

He looked at me gently wrapping an arm my shoulders and turning me away from the bookcase. It seemed like he didn’t feel like talking about the objects that was on there anymore, and I didn’t blame him. Absolutely no one deserves to relive such mundane memories no matter their background. “Anyway now that we’re not in the open, let's talk Seth. What’s on your mind?” 

I swallowed the lump in my throat, I hadn’t been quite able to piece together all my words. I thought about what I wanted to say. “Are Dean and I...Do you…” I couldn’t piece together the words. This was harder than I thought. It felt like I was trying to talk to my father all over again. I took a deep breath again, I needed to get this off my chest so that my mind could have some sort of remission. “Are Dean and I the ones? Do you really think we can be the ones to carry on what Colonel Styles had set for you?” 

Roman gave an exasperated sigh, he seemed so distraught with my question. I thought for sure he’d kick me out of his office right then and there, and I felt like I was about to have a repeat with Roman like I had with Dean back at my dorm two days ago. “I guess, it had to be sooner or later.” Roman led me away from the bookcase and into his office chair. I sat down in his chair as he paced back and forth in front of the desk. “Seth, you’re not far from the truth. I do want to continue Colonel Styles’ work. But that’s not the reason why I chose you and Dean.” he let out another deep breath, this had to be hard for him. Everything especially after telling me about his mentor and his old team. “My decision goes beyond both your arrangement of skills. When I saw you two first entered the facility, you were both beyond terrified, and when I finally started my series of experiments...I understood why.” 

Now I understood, a little bit. But there was still so much unanswered...there had to be more than just we were scared of what lied ahead, and I’m still scared of that fact. I knew I shouldn’t push the issue, and it was becoming later in the night. We probably should save this conversation for later. We were both interrupted by a knock at the door. 

Roman walked over to the door to open it to see a very pale looking Brigadier General Lorken. Beads of sweat were collected on his forehead. “I just got off the phone with the High General...we need to talk now, Reigns.” The Lieutenant Colonel looked back at me with an apologetic look on his face. He probably wanted to talk more but whatever it is that Lorken needed sounded urgent. This was probably a sign I needed to return to my dorm. 

I watched Roman just leave with Lorken as I stood up from the chair with a deep sigh. I opened the door being courteous to lock it behind me as I left. I figured Roman didn’t want people just waltzing into his office while he was gone.

As I proceeded down the hall I passed by Lorken’s office and heard muffled shouting through the door. It didn’t sound like their conversation was very pleasant as I could hear Roman’s voice getting louder. I’d have yet to hear this side of the older man and it sounded pretty terrifying. This was a side of Roman Reigns I’d hope I’d never have to run into. I left quickly after their argument sounded to get even more heated.

**~~~**~~~**

I returned to my dorm in quick fashion after leaving the office, and it didn’t take me long to drift into sleep. With so many thoughts weighing down on my mind I was surprised I was even able to sleep at all. Everything that Roman had told me stuck in my mind. I was in and out of a dreamless sleep and it made me grow anxious.

All of the older man’s actions, seemed to caring, and so gentle. He went to great lengths to make sure Dean and I were comfortable with everything, but then hearing him get into an argument with Lorken. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but Roman’s voice sounded completely different. Inner demons suddenly released from confinement, and it had began to make me think about what ever happened between Reigns and Lorken must have been serious. For two individuals who were so close to suddenly sound so bitter to one another must have been painful. I really hoped that wouldn’t happen to the three of us. Even after only two weeks Dean, Roman, and I were so close, we were starting to already become a brotherhood. 

I was falling asleep for the what seemed like the third time that night when I jolted again by knock at my door. Who could possibly be knocking at my door at this hour? Disgruntled, I reluctantly opened the door to see Roman and Dean. The Atlean had Ceadeus over one shoulder and a duffle bag over the other, while the Lieutenant Colonel had a garment bag draped over one shoulder, probably holding his uniform, and a cylinder shaped sack at his feet. 

“We need to go, now.” The amount of emphasis put into that last word held urgency. I opened my mouth to say something before immediately being cut off by the Lieutenant Colonel. “No time to explain, Seth. Get your things together, we need to get moving” I nodded and dipped back into my room collecting my things With the way things sounded I had no time to try and figure out how things were going to fit into my own bag, I just knew we had to get out of there. Roman’s voice sounded like it was in a state of panic, which jumbled my thoughts once again. I moved as quickly as I could trying not to think about what could have happened what caused the older man sound so terrified. It sounded bad, everything sounded horrifying. I couldn’t think, I just wanted to leave and get out of there with Dean and Roman. Lastly, I stuffed the journal into my bag before meeting the other two men at the door closing it behind me. 

The three of us moved fast, we did our best to not make a sound before making it to the grounds. I dared not ask Roman or Dean what was happening just yet, I was confident that Roman wouldn’t leave us in the dark for long especially on such a austere matter. We exited the dorm and ran over to the gate to the south of the base. There was a jeep waiting there as well as Cassandra, which made matters even more confusing. She too looked worried which only made grow even more distressed. She looked at all three of us disheartened, I know she was close to the Lieutenant Colonel but I wondered if she had grown attached to Dean and I as well. She tried so hard to push us together, and we all owed her for that.

She ran up to us reaching up to wrap an arm around both mine and Dean’s necks, we both leaned down to meet her halfway. “Please take care of Roman for me.” Was she not coming with us? What was happening? Dean and I both gave her a gentle hug back before pulling back entirely. She looked up at both of us tears welling in her eyes. All this time she had spent shoving us together and now she was sending us off. I felt like I was releasing a piece of myself backing away from the beautiful nurse like that. I knew eventually there was going to be a time to say goodbye to her, but this soon? I still had so much to ask her, I wanted to get to know her at least a little bit. There wasn’t even time to thank her for everything she had done for us. Cassandra was a good woman, and it was hard to not say anything. “You guys need to go now.” She sounded like she knew what was going on too, but asking her didn’t seem like it was right, it was only Roman’s right to explain his action and burdens.

We placed our things in the back seat of the jeep remembering to leave enough room for Dean. We all piled into the jeep turning back to look at Cassandra one last time tears streaming down her face. I had a feeling this would be the last time we saw her, and the last time we would see this facility. Roman turned on the jeep taking a deep breath, this had to be equally as hard for him as it was for her. He had no choice he drove off quickly.

**~~~**~~~**

“The High General pulled the plug on Project: Taladen.” Roman said after we had finally put some distance between us and the base. “I was getting you two out of there before you guys can be moved. We’re headed to a training facility near Pegasus. It’s the same place where I trained with my team.”

I watched Roman grip the steering wheel sighing in defeat. For the first time ever, I saw deep fear within the older man. What was gonna happen to research facility? What about the other test subjects? What about Cassandra? We were at the end of our beginning, and were now headed to receive actual training. 

This was it, Dean and I were soldiers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With that this is the end of _Operation: Origins_. Now you know who Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns are and what they can do 
> 
> The next episode is _Operation: Chimera_
> 
> A Chimera is a creature made of three beasts into one sentient being. Now that they understand one another like the Chimera they must come together to form a single unit to handle the ordeals of the Alliance and each other. No one believes they can do it, but for Seth, Dean, and Roman they're out to prove everyone wrong and show the strength of their growing brotherhood.


End file.
